South African Fast Food Outlets Contribution Towards Curbing Obesity: Managements’ Perspective

The aim of this study was to determine what the fast food restaurants in the Gauteng region are doing to combat obesity. Obesity is a global epidemic, with figures rising at an alarming rate every year. The food service industry has contributed significantly to the rise in obesity rates worldwide. Purposive sampling technique was utilised. From the target population selected, one manager per establishment was chosen to participate in the survey (one manager x 5 fast food outlets x 6 branches = 30 managers in total). The study used a quantitative research approach, utilising self-administered surveys which were distributed by the researchers. Summarily, the study observed that there was a statistically significant difference (p;0.05) among the managers regarding knowledge of healthy meals. Managers of two of the fast foods had better knowledge of healthy meals than managers of the other three fast foods. A lot still needs to be done across all sectors of the food industry. The South African government, specifically the Departments of Health and Tourism, should collaborate to develop regulations regarding inclusion of nutritional information on menus. Increasing fast food restaurant employees’ awareness of the obesity epidemic can have a long-term impact because they will be able to easily promote healthier eating if they are better informed. The findings revealed that the managers agreed that more regulations were needed to help reduce obesity.