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Transitioning towards sustainable diets is imperative to avoid the worst effects of climate change, environmental degradation, and malnutrition. In South Africa, households most vulnerable to food insecurity employ various strategies to access food. These include purchasing hampers; a combination of staple foods sold in bulk at a discounted price, which are cake wheat flour, super maize meal, white sugar, cooking oil, and white parboiled rice. We explore the barriers and opportunities for hampers to advance sustainable diets in the context of Cape Town. Our findings show hampers contain energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. Furthermore, we find that brand loyalty plays an important role in households' purchase of hampers. We conclude there is potential to leverage hampers to become a sustainable strategy through which people can access healthier food by working with retailers to offer nutritious and sustainably produced alternatives. Such change would require challenging retailers' and consumers' understanding of what 'necessities' are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the dominance of big food and beverage companies in South Africa, as well as their implication in unhealthy eating. It relates the companies' development of strategies, as well as a range of health and wellness initiatives, to increase the availability, affordability and acceptability of their foods in the country. This article also calls on the South African government to act immediately to mitigate the adverse health effects in the food environment.