F&B market assessments in East Africa, grocery store with African woman
By Katherine Pittore, Head of Policy and Communications at ATNi

ATNi aims to transform markets to deliver more nutritious diets, ultimately leading to healthier populations. But what does this look like in practice? How can indexes and tools that assess the food and beverage (F&B) market support better policies?

The food environment describes the interface between us and the food we consume. It is often conceptualized as the interaction between the personal food environment—factors including whether a food is accessible where food is purchased, whether it is affordable, whether it is convenient (e.g., grabbing a ready-to-eat snack or frozen pizza rather than grains and vegetables that must be cooked and prepared), and finally, desirability, including cultural and personal preference. The personal food environment interacts with the external food environment, and includes factors such as whether a food is available, the price (which interacts with income to make something affordable), the types of vendors in the area, the types of products these vendors sell, and the marketing one is exposed to. The external food environment is critical and plays a large role in influencing our diets. Too often, discussions about nutrition and healthy eating focus on personal choice and education, which of course play a role, neglecting the critical influence of the external food environment. 

How does this link to the East Africa Market Assessment?

In East Africa, specifically Kenya and Tanzania—the focal countries for our assessment—diets are changing rapidly, with growth in modern retailers and fast-food outlets, and a shift away from traditional diets. 

The East Africa Market Assessment (EAMA) provides a snapshot of the current situation in terms of the healthiness of processed and packaged food sold in Kenya and Tanzania. Our assessment looks at the healthiness of the available processed and packaged foods, the affordability of these products—especially for low-income consumers—the use of front-of-package labelling and other policies to support consumers in making healthier choices, as well as policies around marketing, especially company practices to protect children from unhealthy food marketing.

How can governments play a role in positively shaping the food environment?

• Introduce fiscal measures that make less healthy foods more expensive and healthier foods more affordable (such as sugar-sweetened beverage taxes). 
• Approve a nutrient profile model for their country and use it as the basis for a range of policies, including guiding consumers towards healthier choices through interpretive front-of-package nutrition labels and guiding the use of nutrition and health claims on foods. Ensure that these policies are mandatory and that there are mechanisms in place to ensure compliance. 
• Ban marketing of unhealthy foods to children under the age of 18. Governments are legally bound to protect the health and rights of their citizens, especially children.

Our market assessment found that there is significant room for improvement in terms of what companies are doing. In Kenya, we found that 90% of processed and packaged foods assessed did not “pass” the new Kenyan NPM, meaning they would need to carry at least one warning label. 
 

Tanzania Market Assessment EAMA

In Tanzania, only 25% of products were found to be healthy using the Health Star Rating, a commonly used nutrient profile model. Companies also have room to improve in terms of committing to only use health claims on foods meeting certain nutrient criteria (currently none of the companies showed evidence of doing this) and commitments to restricting marketing to children (no Tanzanian-headquartered companies showed evidence of such policies). 

However, the governments in both Kenya and Tanzania have already shown leadership when it comes to shaping healthier food environments.

Kenya is the first country in Africa to approve its own nutrient profile model—a key first step to guide other food environment policies. The government is now working on a rollout strategy to translate the policy recommendations into action. ATNi has shared our findings with the Ministry of Health in Kenya, and they are using these findings to push for policy implementation. 

As Zachariah Muriuki from the Kenya Ministry of Health shared in the EAMA global launch webinar:

“The [Kenya Market Assessment] report that used our Kenya Nutrient Profiling model…will shape and strengthen the development of the mandatory regulations on front-of-pack labelling and also for market[ing] restriction. [This report] is going to assist us, especially [in] having a baseline. Now we know the practice of companies….we know how the market is behaving.”

Tanzania is also working on developing its own NPM, currently led by a team of researchers who will present their findings to the government in the autumn of 2025. Tanzania also made a pledge at the Paris Nutrition for Growth event to introduce a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax, based on research showing that a 20% SSB tax has the potential to reduce the prevalence of obesity by 6.6% in the country.

 

What next?

Developing and approving these policies is a critical first step; however, rollout will be key. Evidence about what companies are actually doing will remain critical to support the government in identifying key policy priorities. ATNi’s market assessment is the first step in providing a baseline—future iterations are needed to track and measure progress. ATNi will  continue working with key partners both Kenya and Tanzania including the Ministry of Health, Ministries of Industry and Trade and other government and non-governmental partners to push for improved food environment policies which create healthier food environments for all.  

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