Abstract
BackgroundVery little is known about street food and fast food consumption patterns in South Africa despite this being a large sector of the national economy in terms of employment provided and sales of food. The objective of this study was to determine the use of street foods and fast foods purchased by South Africans living in different provinces and geographic areas.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted. Structured interview-administered questionnaires in 11 official languages were conducted at the participants' homes. A nationally representative sample (n = 3287) was drawn from all ethnic groups, and provinces including participants 16 years and older. Logistic regression was done to evaluate factors impacting on fast food consumption.ResultsFrequent (2 ≥ times/week) street food consumption ranged from 1.8% in Northern Cape to 20.6% in Limpopo; frequent (2 ≥ times/week) fast food consumption ranged between 1.5% in North West Province to 14.7% in Gauteng. The highest intake of street food was in the medium socio-economic category (14.7%) while the highest intake of fast foods was in the high socio-economic category (13.2%). Overall, fruit was the most commonly purchased street food by all ethnic groups over the previous week although this practice was highest in black participants (35.8%). Purchases of soft drinks ranged from 4.8% in whites to 16.4% in blacks and savoury snacks from 2.3% to 14.5% in whites and blacks, respectively. Consumption of fast foods and street foods were influenced by a number of socio-demographic factors including ownership of major home appliances. Frequent fast food consumers had a significantly higher dietary diversity score (4.69; p < 0.0001) while frequent street food consumers had a significantly lower score (3.81; p < 0.0001).ConclusionsA large percentage of the population purchase street foods and fast foods. This is of some concern when one notes the high prevalence of soft drink consumption in terms of its association with obesity and non-communicable diseases. These findings need to be taken into consideration when evaluating dietary patterns and nutritional adequacy of population diets.
Highlights
Very little is known about street food and fast food consumption in South Africa despite this being a large sector of the national economy in terms of employment provided and sales of food [1]
Almost half of the participants earned less than R5 000 ($714.29) per month yet spent at least R200 ($28.57) a month on fast foods
Street food were hardly used by 90.4% of whites and 84.8% of Indians in contrast to 54.7% of blacks (Table 2). 5.9% Blacks used street food every day/nearly every day compared with 3.4% of those of mixed ancestry, 2.1% of Indians and 1.7% of whites
Summary
Very little is known about street food and fast food consumption in South Africa despite this being a large sector of the national economy in terms of employment provided and sales of food [1]. In 2009, Feeley et al, published data on fast food consumption (including street food sold by vendors) among 17 year olds in the Birth to Twenty cohort in Soweto and Johannesburg [2] They found that 30% of the participants consumed fast foods five to seven times a week with another 20% having it two to four times a week. They postulated that street foods would probably make a significant contribution to total dietary intake since many items were substantial meals in terms of energy value, the “Sowetan quarter (kota)” which comprises a quarter loaf of white bread with fried potato chips as the two main ingredients. The objective of this study was to determine the use of street foods and fast foods purchased by South Africans living in different provinces and geographic areas
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