More specifically, the study found no evidence that VAs have a positive impact on public health – and, in addition, found that such commitments in fact have a damaging impact on governments’ taking action to put stricter regulations in place.
Safura Abdool-Karim, one of Erzse’s co-authors, and a lawyer, explained that, in trying to establish the actual, real-world outcomes of voluntary actions, they found that instead of having demonstrable public-health outcomes the VAs had “more of a policy substitution effect, or a weakening of governments’ ability to regulate”.
Abdool-Karim describes the highly concentrated control of South Africa’s food supply, and says, “they have created a narrative around things like the sugary-beverage tax that [they say] takes away consumer choice, takes away consumer freedom”. The same corporations are often producing both healthy and unhealthy foods – for example, minimally processed oatmeal and ultra-processed crisps.