One Voice, One Label: Uganda Launches a Food Policy Coalition to Tell the Truth About Our Food

Why lawyers, farmers’ advocates, consumer groups, students, and journalists have joined forces to put clear warning labels on unhealthy food, and why CEFROHT is in the thick of it.

Line up ten packaged snacks on a table. Biscuits, crisps, noodles, a juice or two. How many of them would you guess are too salty to be good for you? Two? Three?

Try more than five.

That was one of the findings in the room at Golden Tulip Hotel in Kampala on 13th July 2026, when Dr. George Upenytho, Commissioner of Community Health at the Ministry of Health, launched the Uganda Food Policy Coalition. The launch took place during a national meeting on the Uganda Nutrient Profile Model and Front of Pack Warning Labelling, attended by government ministries, departments and agencies, universities, civil society, UN agencies and the media.

Commissioner Dr. Charles Oyoo of the Ministry of Health did not soften his words. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease, he said, are a silent epidemic. They cause 33 out of every 100 deaths in Uganda. They strike people in their best working years, empty family savings, and put heavy pressure on the national health budget.

And much of it begins on the plate. Think of the food many of us grew up on: matooke, beans, groundnut sauce, sweet potatoes. Now think of what a child buys at the school gate today. Cheap factory-made foods and sugary drinks are steadily pushing our traditional foods aside, and our bodies are paying for the swap.

A national landscape study presented at the meeting looked at packaged foods across 14 health regions and 17 towns. The results should worry every parent. More than half of the products were high in salt. Almost half were high in saturated fat. More than one in three were high in total fat.

This is not just a Kampala problem. These foods now reach the villages. They are sold and advertised right next to our schools.

Label it, know it, prevent it. Every label is a chance to save a life.

Why a coalition, and why now

Here is the truth. No single organization can win this fight alone. The companies selling ultra-processed food have money, lobbyists and advertising budgets that never seem to run dry. Public health, by contrast, has too often spoken in many small, scattered voices.

The Uganda Food Policy Coalition changes that. Its members include CEFROHT, SEATINI Uganda, FIAN Uganda, the Consumer Center (CONSENT), the Food and Law Club Makerere, the Agroecology Legal Network for Africa (ALENAF), Slow Food Uganda, the Uganda Law Society and the Uganda Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (UNCDA), with members of the media alongside. Some know the law. Some know trade, farming and nutrition. Some speak for patients, students and consumers. The media carries the message to every corner of the country. Together, one voice.

The Coalition will follow food on its whole journey, from how it is made and advertised to how it is sold and governed by law.

First job: put the truth on the front of the pack

On 9th February 2026, the Ministry of Health signed the Uganda Nutrient Profile Model, which sets clear limits for how much sugar, salt or fat is too much. The Coalition’s first task is to push for a Front of Pack Warning Labelling regulation that follows it, so that a simple warning on the front of a packet tells every Ugandan, in the second it takes to reach for it, that a food is high in sugar, salt or fat.

Let us be clear about what this is not. It is not a ban. Nobody is coming for your favorite biscuits. The aim is simply that you know what you are eating before you eat it.

Where CEFROHT stands

We see this as a matter of rights, not marketing. Every Ugandan has the right to adequate food, the right to health and the right to information, and government has a duty to protect all three. That is CEFROHT’s home ground. As a legal and human rights organization, we supported the development of the Nutrient Profile Model with legal, human rights and public health expertise. Inside the Coalition, we bring the law: helping turn the model into a regulation strong enough to survive industry pushback, and standing ready to defend it if it is challenged.

The Coalition is launched. The work has started. Ugandans deserve the truth about their food.

Are you a parent, a health worker, a teacher, a student, a journalist, or a funder who believes that too? Stand with us. Share this story, lend your voice to the campaign for clear labels, or partner with us at info@cefroht.org.