Links Grantees /

University of Wollongong

Monitoring South Africa's salt reduction laws

Status: Ongoing

UoW is a public research university in Australia with a long track record in nutritional research.

With support from LINKS, UoW will encourage enforcement of mandatory sodium targets in processed foods in South Africa by assessing compliance of the food industry and developing monitoring systems.

UoW’s Associate Professor Karen Charlton will lead a consortium including researchers from University of Pretoria, Discovery Vitality, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa (HSFSA), with support from the WHO Collaborating Centre on Salt Reduction at the George Institute for Global Health.

“The epidemic of non-communicable diseases is increasingly burdening health systems in African countries. Prevention is key. This grant provides a welcome opportunity for our team to assess compliance of the food industry with mandated salt targets in South Africa and develop a monitoring framework with key stakeholders such as the South African Directorate of Food Control. Ensuring reformulation of foods to be lower in salt will have a large impact on improving population health.

Karen Charlton, Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics, UoW

Read the full press release.