Fix My Food
For every child, better food, better futures
Right now, the health of more than 1 in 5 children in South Africa is at risk of a future impacted by food-related illnesses.
The food industry floods our world with unhealthy foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat. Such processed products have been linked to non-communicable diseases, which include heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. These are the leading causes of death in South Africa.
Children and youth are also relentlessly targeted with food marketing. They are deliberately manipulated into buying their unhealthy food products through marketing them by using cute cuddly cartoons and famous celebrities. Misleading health claims are often used alongside offering digitally targeted financial incentives to teens. Both online and in real life – our food environments are overflowing with unhealthy options and pushing healthier options further and further out of reach.
With the abundant fruit, vegetable and healthy nutrient-dense options available in this country, it should be easy for everyone in South Africa to be healthy, but it is not. Evidence shows that ultra-processed products make up at least 40% of the diets of young people in South Africa.
What needs to happen
Front-of-pack warning labels can help reduce purchases of unhealthy food and drive product reformulation, improving diet quality and reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases. Several countries have implemented them already with positive results.
The Government has an opportunity to protect the health of children and youth by passing draft regulation R3337 on Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs. This would require package warning labels to be placed on unhealthy products and such products would not be allowed to be marketed to children.
Strengthening youth action
UNICEF is empowering youth advocates from around the country to use their lived experiences to speak up about these issues. Through workshops, mentoring and coaching, young people are strengthening their advocacy skills to ask for change. These youth advocates are better equipped to take action and demand improvements to the food environment, for a healthy life today and in the future.
Meet Fix My Food South Africa
Fix My Food South Africa is a coalition of young people advocating for a fairer food system where healthy food is available, accessible, and affordable for every child and youth. Fix My Food South Africa is part of the wider Fix My Food Global Movement, which is now present in more than 10 countries.
Fix My Food is inspired by the efforts of the South African government to address the high rates of obesity and NCDs, foregrounded through the adoption of the Strategy for the Prevention and Management of Obesity in South Africa 2023-2028 and the National Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2020-2027.
Together with various partners including civil society organizations and youth structures, Fix My Food South Africa is asking for all children and youth to have access to nutritious, diverse and healthy diets. The youth movement is currently advocating for government to sign the draft regulation (the R3337) into law. This action will restrict children’s exposure to food marketing and support having nutritious food options. This can enable better food preferences, purchases and intake.
Siphosethu Nase (Fix my food advocate) represented Fix My Food South Africa at the Nutrition 4 Growth summit in France (March 2025) to address global leaders on the urgent need for stronger food policies to protect children and youth from manipulative food marketing.
The Fix My Food Global Movement was born out of the 2021 UNICEF Fix My Food Report which highlighted the demands of 700 young people from 18 countries on how they wanted to transform their food systems. The movement came to life in 2023 when UNICEF collaborated with Bite Back 2030 to bring together young people, influencers, celebrities and food entrepreneurs to advocate for healthier food environments across the East Asia and Pacific Region. Fix My Food is expanding to more regions and countries and the movement reached South Africa in 2024.
