SEND Ghana has warned that the growing consumption of ultra-processed foods among children could increase the country’s future burden of diabetes, hypertension and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The organisation says Ghana needs to introduce mandatory Front-of-Pack Warning Labelling (FOPWL) to help consumers identify foods high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats and make healthier choices.
Project Officer at SEND Ghana, Baaba Sam, said many Ghanaians struggled to understand existing nutritional information on food products, leaving them unable to make informed decisions about what they consumed.
Speaking at a workshop on Nutrient Profile Modelling (NPM), Front-of-Pack Warning Labelling and Healthy Food Policies in Ghana, organised by Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana) in collaboration with SEND Ghana and GAND, Ms Sam explained that although Ghana had regulations requiring nutritional information on food products, the existing system had significant weaknesses, particularly regarding the visibility and understanding of the information.
She said consumers could find nutritional information tables at the back of food packages, but many either ignored them or did not understand what the figures and technical terms meant.
“Ghana has a regulation for food labelling, actually. So, when you take any product, and then you look at the back of the label, you see that there’s a nutrition content table over there,” she said.
“But the issue with it is that it’s actually not compulsory, so people cannot decide whether or not they want to put it there. The other part is that consumers do not understand. So the ordinary Ghanaian does not understand, and we don’t even pay attention to it at all.”
According to her, the information contains important details about the amount of sugar, fat and salt in products, among other ingredients, but its location and technical presentation make it less useful to ordinary consumers.
She said the proposed Front-of-Pack Warning Labelling policy would address these challenges by making warning labels compulsory and easier to understand.
Ms Sam said that the word ‘mandatory’ was important because food manufacturers would no longer have the option of deciding whether or not to display the warning labels.
“So, it means that industry or individual food manufacturers do not pick and choose whether they want their labels to be there or not. The other part is that it is very easy for the average Ghanaian to understand,” she explained.
She said the proposed labels would combine symbols and written warnings to ensure that even consumers with limited literacy could identify products containing excessive amounts of unhealthy ingredients.
“The front-of-pack warning policy, or the FOPL, has two sides. One, it would have a symbol, and it would also have writing so that if the person, the consumer, is not educated, at least when you see the symbol, it gives you an idea of what the label is trying to warn you about,” she said.
Ms Sam also raised concerns about the use of very small print on food packaging, saying it made it difficult for consumers to read and understand nutritional information.
She argued that information intended to guide purchasing decisions served little purpose if consumers could not easily see or interpret it.
She said the proposed front-of-pack labelling system would make warnings more visible, with bold and legible information that consumers could understand at a glance.
“If it is small, then why is it there in the first place if people cannot read it?” she questioned.
She also expressed concern about parents’ growing preference for packaged snacks and ultra-processed foods when choosing what their children eat.
She said convenience often influenced parents’ decisions, with biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks becoming more common choices than fruits and vegetables.
Ms Sam warned that introducing children to unhealthy food habits at an early age could have serious consequences for their health later in life.
“It’s a huge problem. Parents, when we are deciding the kind of snacks to give our children, fruits don’t come to mind, or vegetables don’t come to mind. But the first thing we go for, actually, parents buy it in packs and put it down because it’s easy, it’s accessible, and all that,” she said.
She cautioned that such habits could contribute to a generation facing a higher risk of diabetes and hypertension.
“Forgetting that we are raising future diabetics and future hypertensives,” she said.
Ms Sam said that diabetes, traditionally regarded by many as a condition associated mainly with older people, was increasingly being diagnosed among children.
She referred to presentations at the workshop which highlighted cases of Type 2 diabetes among children, warning that the trend should concern parents and policymakers.
“Now we are diagnosing children who are not Type 1 diabetics, but they are Type 2 diabetics. So, which means that gradually, because of the food we are giving them, we used to think that diabetes is a disease of the old. But right now, the terrain is changing, and it is becoming a problem,” she said.
Ms Sam further warned that the rising prevalence of diet-related diseases could place additional pressure on government spending on healthcare.
She said that a country’s economic development depended heavily on the health of its population and that allowing preventable illnesses to increase would have long-term financial consequences.
“One of the things government should pay attention to is that the health of its people is what drives the economy,” she said.
She explained that conditions such as diabetes and hypertension often require long-term treatment and management, placing a sustained burden on individuals, families and the healthcare system.
According to her, government could end up spending increasing amounts of money managing chronic illnesses that could have been prevented or reduced through healthier diets and effective public health policies.
“And so, if you now have to spend a lot of money, like government is doing now, to take care of your population, it’s a chronic disease that is not going. And so it’s like just managing the person to live,” she said.
She added that an increase in the number of people living with diet-related conditions would require government to allocate more resources to healthcare, raising questions about the sustainability of public spending.
Ms Sam also attributed the growing preference for unhealthy foods to the high levels of sugar, salt and fats used in many ultra-processed products.
She said these ingredients could make such foods highly appealing, encouraging repeated consumption even when people were no longer hungry.
Using everyday experiences to illustrate the problem, she said children often preferred sweets, biscuits and sugary drinks to proper meals, forcing parents to struggle to get them to eat healthier foods.
She added that unhealthy eating habits were not limited to children, as adults also developed cravings for certain processed foods.
“Sometimes you open the fridge. You are done eating. You know you are very full. If they give you another food, you know it. But the next thing you say is that they are there, and you wonder, I’m full, so why do I need this?” she said.
“Some of the sugar, fats, and salts that they add to these ultra-processed foods are very, very addictive, and they give us a palatable tongue. And so you keep going in for it again and again and again. So it never satisfies you,” she added.