Poverty puts polony on the table
But there are better sources of affordable protein available
● On Bryanston Drive, in Sandton, sits Jackon’s Real Food Market, which offers upperincome consumers a “one-stop nutrientdense food shop”, packed with stone-ground sourdough breads, locally sourced organically grown fruit and vegetables and hormonefree grass-fed meat cuts.
But for most South Africans, quality food is completely out of reach, and in many homes products such as polony are a cheap substitute for fresh meat.
Gary Jackson, the founder of Jackson’s, said this week that while polony was filling, “the actual protein content isn’t as high as people imagine. The number of toxins and chemicals is high.
“So people who are conscious of what they eat don’t go that route.”
Jackson said that as an alternative to polony, offal tended to be cheaper, with a 300g pack of chicken gizzards costing as little as R12.
“Our population should be eating it, but instead it’s being minced up and used as animal feed, but that meat is low-priced and you get yourself a nice portion of protein.”
But at Jackson’s, while the price points are below what Woolworths and Spar would charge, they are more expensive than Checkers and Pick n Pay.
Julie Smith, a research co-ordinator at Pac sa (Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action), said the problem of polony consumption was part of a wider one of the affordability of food in general, and protein in particular, in the face of low wages, high unemployment and high prices.
“There are no animal meat protein products in the zero-rated basket [for VAT] apart from tinned pilchards.
“Eggs and dairy are in the zero-rated basket as are sugar beans and other legumes. However, meat provides a better source of protein” which is more easily available to the body, she said.
Smith said polony was not a good source of protein but provided small amounts of it, as well as fats that children need, which with the affordability constraints was why mothers put polony on children’s sandwiches. South African diets are very low in goodquality protein, she added.
“In terms of protein alternatives to polony, which are healthier, eggs and peanut butter provide a better source.
“The problem with eggs and peanut butter, as with polony, is that they are difficult to manage in a household as everybody craves protein so it is hard for mothers to keep them in the diet over the month. All ‘kids foods’ tend to disappear when mothers turn their backs,” she said.
In February, the difference in cost between the Pacsa Food Basket (not nutritionally complete) and the Pacsa Minimum Nutritional Food Basket (nutritionally complete) was R1 045.97 (R3 115.07 versus R4 161.04).
Russell Rensburg from the Rural Health Advocacy Project said it was well documented that low-income individuals did not have access to healthy food and their income was very limiting.
The project had documented an increase in diabetes and hypertension among the poor, which could be linked to high sodium content.
The South African Health Review 2017 indicated that 80% of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes occur in low- and middle-income countries globally and that in South Africa the probability of dying between 30 and 70 years of age from non-communicable diseases is about 27%.
These death and disease burdens are largely driven by preventable risk factors — such as smoking, drinking alcohol, an unhealthy diet, obesity and physical inactivity.
Pacsa, in its monthly food price barometer, which tracks what working- class households have identified as the foods they would buy each month if they had sufficient money to do so, shows a household would
You have to do the best that you can in the circumstance of your finances Neil Roets CEO of Debt Rescue
purchase 2.5kg of polony.
The other major forms of protein on the list include eggs, frozen chicken portions, chicken feet, gizzards, beef, wors and inyama yangapakhathi (tripe).
However, Neil Roets, CEO of Debt Rescue, said polony and similar meats were how a lot of South Africans and the poor got their protein and it was an important part of the diet.
“If you take that away and you look at the alternatives, the closest to that would be mincemeat and those kind of foods,” he added.
“If you only have a certain amount of money available during the month and you have to look after your family, you have to do the best that you can in the circumstance of your finances.”
Offal, eggs and peanut butter are alternative, healthier choices