A review of the South African food control system: Challenges of fragmentation

South Africa’s food control system is a typical multiple agency food control system where fragmentation of legislation, structure and functions result in operational challenges. These challenges include lack of coordination of functions as well as duplication and unclear jurisdiction of functions between involved government departments. Examples of fragmentation in structure, legislation and function of the South African food control system are presented while descriptions of the abovementioned challenges are also described. In addition, previous and ongoing attempts by government to address these challenges as well as fragmentation as a whole are also provided while brief suggestions on hastening these attempts to integrate the system are also included.