South Gauteng Learners Supplement School Lunches With Leftover Cooking Oil From Fast-food Outlets

Learners at high schools around Finetown and Lenasia in the south of Johannesburg are using leftover cooking oil to add flavour to their school nutrition programme lunch. Some children have been eating this residue for more than five years in school and at home.

The oil, containing fried-food residue, is drained from frying pans and machines at fast-food outlets. Instead of safely discarding it, staff at some of these outlets sell it to learners and street vendors. Health-e News spoke to a manager at one of the local fast-food outlets who says they were not aware that the residue was being sold to the community, as the store prohibits this. 

“We buy 10 litres for R250-280,” a vendor tells Health-e News. “Then we package them in small plastic bags to sell for R5 each. This 10-litre bucket makes R450-500 turnover which means the profit is great.”

A learner says the residue, known as ‘lalaza’, is also sold in their communities. “There are households that sell these crumbs for survival. People like us are just taking chances by selling in school where business is fast, and there are more customers.”

Health impact of lalaza

Last month, learners at Sebokeng experienced hallucinations, sleepiness and diarrhoea, allegedly after eating lalaza. Parents reported it to the police. In a statement released to Health-e News, Sergeant Mokhachane, communications officer at Sebokeng police station, said that SAPS have launched an investigation to verify the ingredients in lalaza.

Reusing cooking oil is known to be harmful, but consumers of lalaza are unaware of the risks.

“I am not sure about the health impact of crumbs on other children and myself because I also eat it. I have not heard complaints from my customers. I only see them come for more and more”, says a 17-year-old learner, Sipho*, from Finetown who is a popular seller of lalaza at a Lenasia South school.

“I buy this stock from a man in the neighbourhood. He is able to get these crumbs through back doors from staff of the fast-food outlets in Ennerdale.” 

Meghan Howell, a dietitian locum at Tygerberg Academic Hospital in Cape Town warns, “the residue won’t be well absorbed in terms of nutrition and may be a cancer risk with oils that have a changed structure, it is harmful and risky to consume such”.

School regulations

In 2024, the Department of Basic Education introduced specific compliance and regulations for school vendors, hawkers, and tuck shops. These included obtaining a certificate of acceptability (COA). Vendors who could not meet the requirements were immediately stopped from selling.

According to Sipho* his school used to regulate what could be sold. “But now they left us to sell anything, hence we are finding something better and quicker so we can make money.”

The young man uses his earnings to supplement whatever money he gets from his mother. This has allowed him to buy a TV game and clothes.  – Health-e News  

*Not his real name.