The Dark Side of Packaged Foods in Africa and the Rapid Rise of Diabetes

While the world still associates Africa with hunger and malnutrition, a different danger is quietly infiltrating the continent's tables: ultra-processed foods. African cuisine, once renowned for its natural, balanced diet rich in fibre, vegetables, and grains, is now seeing its dishes replaced by packaged, long-shelf-life products with low nutritional value.

While the threat of famine persists in certain regions of the continent, chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes are also beginning to rise.

Major food companies that have reached market saturation in Europe and America have set their sights on the African and Asian markets, which are subject to fewer regulations and have rapidly growing youth populations. This sharp shift in food preferences is causing profound dietary changes and serious health problems in Africa and Asia. Research shows that sales of ultra-processed foods in developing countries doubled between 2006 and 2019. For instance, nearly half of the diet of low-income South African adults consists of ultra-processed foods.

Factors behind the rise in ultra-processed food consumption across Africa include urbanization, the expansion of modern supermarkets, and consumer tastes and attitudes transformed by globalization.

From Noodles to Bouillon: The Silent Invasion of Packaged Foods

Africa's local food culture has historically been built on natural, additive-free, and balanced foods. African cuisine, rich in fibre and low in saturated fat and refined sugar, features meals that are nutritious and filling. Each region, even each country, has unique tables reflecting cultural diversity, influenced by different geographical conditions.
However, with packaged foods capturing the market, this balanced culture is giving way to cheap but unhealthy products. While bread and pastries were once consumed very little in most Sub-Saharan African countries, today it's possible to see plastic-wrapped sandwich loaves even in small corner shops.
With large companies rapidly entering the market, palates are being transformed at an incredible speed.

A Ghanaian mother gives her child biscuits instead of corn porridge and vegetables. In rural Kenya, market stalls that once sold only fresh fruits and vegetables now offer cheap flavoured candies and single-use sauce sachets.
In Nigeria, the Chinese noodle brand known locally as 'Indomie' has become a staple meal option. Available on all supermarket shelves and from street vendors, this product is consumed by all socioeconomic classes due to its low price, easy accessibility, and quick preparation. However, due to the additives and low nutritional value, these ready-made foods make people feel hungry more frequently. This is another goal of the big food companies: to destroy traditional meal culture and make packaged foods the new norm.

Low-quality spreadable fats for bread, single-use ketchups, sauces, chips, biscuits, and more are preferred because of their cheap prices. People in Africa are turning to fried dough snacks (mandazi, puff-puff, vitumbuwa, etc.) prepared with cheap, unhealthy oils often reused for street food.
Food companies are also targeting traditional dishes with bouillon cubes containing MSG, marketed as flavour enhancers. These high-sodium, additive-filled bouillon cubes are invariably used when preparing Jollof rice, a traditional West African dish, both in restaurants and homes.

An Explosion in Diabetes and Obesity

Diet-related diabetes is defined as a disease resulting from the body's insulin hormone becoming ineffective or being produced insufficiently, caused by excessive sugar consumption, poor nutrition, and low-quality foods.

For many years, diabetes was virtually non-existent on the African continent. But the situation has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. According to research by the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa has increased by 150% over the last 30 years. In 2021, the number of people with diabetes in Africa was approximately 24 million. The WHO projects that the number of people with diabetes in Africa will rise to 55 million by 2045. (It is known that people with diabetes have twice the risk of developing heart disease.)

The content of products marketed by food companies in Africa differs from similar products sold in Europe. Last year, it was revealed that Nestlé's baby food products designed for Africa and Asia contained significantly higher sugar levels than their counterparts in Europe. The situation is no different for soft drinks. The sugar content in soft drinks sold in the African market is noticeably higher compared to Europe. These two examples suggest a similar situation likely exists in other foods not yet investigated. For giant food companies creating monopolies in the markets they enter, humanity's health is largely unimportant, but when it comes to people in Africa and Asia specifically, their health can be sacrificed even more readily.

Local Solutions, Global Threats

The rich continent that exports raw materials to the world sells mangoes and buys packaged mango juice; sells corn and buys packaged corn chips or corn syrup. However, Africa could break this unhealthy cycle not by purchasing and consuming processed foods from large corporations, but by promoting the consumption of natural foods grown on its own soil.

Africa's way out of this crisis lies in efforts to preserve local food culture and raise public awareness about it. Governments promoting local agriculture could be a crucial step towards implementing stricter regulations against packaged foods high in sugar and sodium.

Educational programs could be organized to help African societies return to healthy eating habits and avoid consuming packaged foods.
Sales of packaged foods in and around school canteens could be restricted. Instead of packaged foods, the sale of unprocessed foods that the continent has in abundance and that local people enjoy eating—such as peanuts, tropical fruits, roasted corn, yams, cassava, and plantains—which keep you full for longer, could be promoted.

An African throws away the peel of a banana grown on their own land and opens a packet of imported banana-flavoured biscuits. A family living amidst cornfields consumes foods sweetened with corn syrup. Someone holds a can of imported energy drink when they could be drinking fresh coconut water. Halting this reversal means protecting not only health but also culture, economy, and identity.

Originally published on WajTürk, October 1, 2025