Request duly noted.
Evidence of meeting #41 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #41 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, McCain Foods Canada
Request duly noted.
5:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Yes, we will be making changes based on the new food guide. As I mentioned, we're also hoping to go further on salt and sugar, but we will do that in conjunction with Health Canada.
The program at Heart and Stroke is about a $1 million a year program. Just so you know, there's a wall between the program and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Any surplus gets put back into the program, but that money is used to review the materials.
We do in-store promotions. We don't promote the individual products, but we promote the brand, because the companies aren't using their own brand. They're not going out there with their own check mark, they're going out there with the Health Check mark, and they want to know that the public understands what that brand means. We therefore have to spend some money to promote the fact that this is a third party, unbiased program based upon Canada's Food Guide. Otherwise, the brand has no value when they put it on their product for consumers. So it's about a $1 million program that is actually very small.
5:15 p.m.
National Coordinator, Centre for Science in the Public Interest
There's no single ingredient that is uniquely responsible for obesity. By that standard, trans fat isn't the cause, nor is saturated fat. The one distinct thing about trans fat is that it doesn't have any redeeming nutritional benefits whatsoever. It contributes just as many calories as saturated fat or polyunsaturated fat, but all it brings is harm to one's health. So I think it fits fairly squarely within the mandate of this committee.
On the question the chair asked earlier about someone following the Heart and Stroke Foundation diet or any of the commercially available ones, those are determinations about the relative healthfulness of a particular food, often in relation to others in the same food category. If you look at some of the commercially available logo systems, virtually all the foods are from the former “other” category, the condiments.
In the case of the Health Check system, I think 50% or 60% are from the meat and dairy categories, whereas the Canada Food Guide wants us to consume three-quarters of our food from fruits and vegetables and whole grains. So strictly speaking, if you followed the Health Check program you wouldn't be getting enough whole grains--the big picture.
But the most important thing is that people follow the general dietary goals of more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and less dairy products and meat, but lower-fat versions when they do consume them.
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Can we speak to that, because it's missing information about the Health Check program.
Carol.
5:20 p.m.
Nutrition Consultant, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
We certainly have food products represented in all 70 categories of the food guide. We have whole grain pastas, a complete line of whole grain breads, and fruits and vegetables. So I'm not sure where the figure of 50% to 60% comes from.
5:20 p.m.
National Coordinator, Centre for Science in the Public Interest
I mean it's counting the products. We should consume a small number of servings from the dairy and meat categories in the food guide. According to the food guide support, I understand we should consume most of our servings from fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
I concede that you do have those types of products represented in your program, but most of the products are from the meat, dairy, and other food categories. It may be just marginally more than half, but the fact is that it's not a distinct minority. That's all I'm saying.
5:20 p.m.
Nutrition Consultant, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
I will send you the percentages.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Penny Priddy NDP Surrey North, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Jeffery perhaps answered the question, but I have a strong feeling that trans fat needs to be included. I believe children who are obese are already health vulnerable, therefore trans fats, which make people even more vulnerable for heart disease, will compromise the health of obese children even more. So I have a really strong feeling it should be included.
Would it ever be possible for grocery stores—and maybe this could be voluntary—to put up posters, bigger than the label, that gave a summary of what the recommended dietary intake was for a day. I don't mean we shouldn't educate people as well, by any means. But if there was a big chart at the end of three rows, I might actually go back and look at it and see if I'd actually covered off the things I was supposed to.
I realize that would take up space at the grocery store, but I have to think that people might really use something like that--at least I would. From the sound of it, none of us in this room are particularly paying attention to it as it currently exists.
Thank you.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
To the Heart and Stroke Foundation, with your Health Check program, what about a scenario where an individual is very busy, is away from home for about half the year, gets home at around 10:30 at night, is out of their apartment, needs to get something to eat, and wheels over to the Subway around the corner? How can you reconcile that sub with the food guide? Is there a way of applying the Health Check program to that poor fellow who's alone in his wheelchair in the Byward Market?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Yes. If that individual wheeled around to a Swiss Chalet he could choose a Health Check meal, which includes the chicken without the skin, non-battered; a reconstituted dipping sauce; a potato; and a salad. That is perfectly in line with Canada's Food Guide and is an option for you at Health Check.
As I mentioned, B.C. has a goal to be the healthiest province by 2010, and they're moving Health Check into a number of their White Spot restaurants. To be clear, it's on a meal and not just a food item, because you have to look at it in its entirety. But there are three Health Check meals at Swiss Chalet.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
But if you do that to your meal, what's the point?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Do you mean, are you forced to eat a Health Check meal?
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
You just get a choice.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
That's the end of our questioning.
I want to thank you very much for coming in and sharing your expertise with us on food labelling. It is something that is very important to Canadians, and it's an experiment that we're well into now. We hope to be able to enhance it even further. Thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.
