Government is looking at giving food vouchers or cash to poor households to help them cope with spiralling food prices.

"We're looking at a range of options... such as food vouchers, [as well as] increasing cash transfers in the case of people already on the social assistance programme," social development director-general Vusi Madonsela told a parliamentary media briefing on Monday.

Government was keen to move away from delivering food parcels to affected households, as this scheme was "riddled with a number of challenges" that had resulted in distribution delays.

Last month, Cabinet mandated an inter-ministerial committee to develop a strategy to tackle food security. Millions of poor South Africans have been hard hit by the rapidly-escalating prices of basic foodstuffs such as bread, milk and maize.

"It may well be that in the end it will be a combination of increased cash transfers for those who are on the [social assistance] programme, and food vouchers for those who are not," Madonsela said.

Government was moving "speedily" towards refining exactly what the strategy was going to be.

"We will be going back to Cabinet with the detailed analysis that we've been asked to do... and will communicate to the nation what strategy we're going to employ going forward," he said.

Madonsela did not put a date on when this would be. Asked if the strategy would include plans to "cap" the producer price of certain essential foodstuffs, acting agriculture director-general Kgobi Mogajane said this was being investigated.

"Yes, it covers a whole range of [short-term] initiatives... and the long-term kind of ventures, which focus precisely on production," she said.

The removal of VAT from some foodstuffs not already zero-rated was also being examined, she said.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told the briefing that when it came to food prices, government would only resort to regulating the price of essential foods if an appeal to the "consciences" of suppliers failed.

"Primarily, that is the approach one would look for. But of course, if everything else fails, then we should begin to prepare legislation of some sort," she said.

Asked how many people were eligible for food vouchers, health director-general Thami Mseleku said the committee could not yet put a "comprehensive number" to this, as it was still working on the figures.

Similarly, he could not yet say what the budget would be for this as government was still "zooming in" on this issue.

Sapa