Parliament asked to strengthen nutrition laws to fight Non-Communicable Diseases

By Prossy Kisakye

Food safety experts from World Health Organization and Centre for Food and Adequate Living Rights, have called upon Members of Parliament to strengthen legal and regulatory measures to promote healthy diets in order to prevent Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

The group was sensitizing members of parliament on the legal and regulatory measures needed for promoting healthy diets and physical activity promotion.

The assistant commissioner of Nutrition department from the ministry of Health, Samalie Namukose, underscored the need for parliament to enact a policy to restrict marketing of fats, sugar and salts which are fond of escalating the NCDs.

She says consumption of unhealthy foods is being fuelled by inadequate and concealed information regarding nutrition labelling.

She has now called for Parliament’s intervention in order to regulate nutrition labelling to ensure that information about the product is interpretative and factual.

Ntwetwe county MP Joel Ssebikali said that Laws like the Foods and Drugs Act, Public health Act among others were enacted in the colonial days and legislators and called that they are urgently amended.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna