Nutrition transition in East Africa

Fruit and veg consumption is low

At a workshop on the Promotion of Fruit and Vegetables in Arusha, Tanzania, the risk of low fruit and vegetable intake has been highlighted. WHO and FAO experts recommends 146 kg per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables per year (equivalent to 400g a day) to prevent NCDs, but Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania’s consumption is well below the recommended amount – despite the fact that these countries are often major producers of fruit and vegetables to the rest of the world.

Godfrey Xuereb, a WHO technical officer on surveillance and population-based prevention in the Department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion noted that average fruit and vegetable consumption in the region is just 38 per cent of the recommended amount:

• Kenya’s consumption is 115kg per capita, around 79 per cent of the recommended amount;
• in Uganda consumption is 65kg (200g a day), less than half of the recommendation; and
• it is lower still in Tanzania: 164g per day or only 60kg per capita consumption annually.

Mr Xuereb also noted that low intake is among the 10 top risk factors for mortality, and is estimated to be a factor in 27 per cent of all deaths in the East Africa region.

Changing habits may not be easy, even where cost is not the problem: the Horticulture Development Council of Tanzania’s executive director, Jacqueline Laisser, commented that ‘affordability and accessibility of vegetables and fruits is not an issue, the issue is attitude…for many people, to eat veggies is regarded as poverty. We must change.’

Source: The East African, 30 October 2011.

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