Evidence of meeting #17 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was foods.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
For the committee's information, they are on our witness list, and he is going to be the presenter.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Davidson.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to each presenter. It has certainly been an interesting afternoon.
The one thing that has come across loud and clear is the fact that we don't have very reliable data. We're hearing different things from everybody. We've had different reports referred to, giving us different outcomes. I think that's a huge concern for this committee, as we try to find a solution, since we don't have any reliable data to build that solution on. That's a comment, not a question.
I do have a question for Mrs. Reynolds. We talk about the voluntary guidelines. I think you said that 41% were participating in these voluntary guidelines. Did I hear that correctly?
4:55 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
There are now 27 companies, and 41% of chain restaurant establishments are represented in those 27 companies.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
What was the timeframe in which we got up to 41% being represented? Is it increasing in the last...or when did this start?
4:55 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
The program was officially launched in February 2005, so it's a relatively new program, and it is growing. I have to be honest and say we had one small regional chain sign up for the program, but then it found that the program was beyond its ability and dropped out. Even with that, we're still growing.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
So you're still seeing interest from the industry to continue?
5 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
We have to be clear. It can only be companies that have a very high degree of standardization in terms of concepts, menu items, suppliers, and portion controllers. You have to have all of those things before the program can work.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you.
To Ms. Farn, you talk about your voluntary school guidelines--I think I have the right presentation here--and we talked about lower-calorie beverage choices. The one question I was going to ask was about the calorie content of juices, and I think Dr. Freedhoff referred to that briefly in his comments later. Who is setting the guidelines for these voluntary guidelines? Is it your group, or who's doing that?
5 p.m.
Director of Public Affairs, Refreshments Canada
Yes, these guidelines were developed by Refreshments Canada for our own member companies, and that includes Coke and Pepsi, who are our major beverage suppliers to schools.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Has there been any consultation with Health Canada or any of these other groups, as far as setting the guideline goes? How would the Refreshments Canada Group come up with health guidelines?
5 p.m.
Director of Public Affairs, Refreshments Canada
In fact, they were a response to what we were hearing from stakeholders. Educators, parents, governments have all told us that they wanted changes in the beverage selections offered to schools, so it really was—
5 p.m.
Conservative
5 p.m.
Director of Public Affairs, Refreshments Canada
They were a direct response to what we've been hearing from our stakeholders. And we did work with dietitians, and we got input from dietitians in terms of portion sizes and product mixes and making them age-appropriate, and so on.
5 p.m.
Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute
Very briefly, for the committee's information, drop for drop, orange juice has more calories than Coca-Cola. Simply because it's a juice doesn't necessarily make it lower in calories. Since today's topic is on childhood obesity, I thought it would be important to mention that to the committee.
5 p.m.
Director of Public Affairs, Refreshments Canada
That's why our beverage guidelines are designed to do two things: reduce the number of calories available to students and increase the nutritious beverage choices. Clearly, there's nutritional value in 100% unsweetened juices.
5 p.m.
Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute
Though the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Paediatric Society both recommend that the serving sizes provided to these children be smaller than those in the voluntary program.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
I wondered, Dr. Kuhnlein, if you would please explain a little bit more about this idea of less junk food in the urban diets and more in the rural.
5 p.m.
Founding Director, Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment
This information is coming from a Quebec first nations health survey that was recently released. The issue is that when indigenous peoples move into the urban area, they stop eating their traditional food, and the market food they have available to them is much more diverse. In the rural area, especially as you get into remote communities, the diversity of market food available to them is very limited and is of very poor quality. I invite any of you to go to one of the remote indigenous communities in Ontario or Quebec and see what's actually on the shelves.
5 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Thank you to all of you for taking the time to appear before us.
My question is directed to Ms. Farn, from Refreshments Canada. I would like to talk about the serving size of beverages. I have been drinking soft drinks for a long time and for a few years my parents even operated a convenience store. So I have been able to follow the evolution in this area. When I was younger, one could find soft drinks in small serving sizes, individual bottles of 300 ml. At meal time, one would put a large bottle on the table, the 750 ml glass bottle which was the family size.
Over time, portions have kept increasing. There are now 500 ml cans and 2 litre bottles for the family-size portion. Recently, driving towards Ottawa, I stopped at a convenience store to buy a soft drink—I wanted something sweet and the smallest serving size available was 710 ml, which is roughly the same amount as the family size from my youth. These individual bottles are elongated and refined and they often have stoppers that allow you to drink straight from the bottle. What is going on? Is this normal?
We can see in your guide that you acted on the recommendations about sizing, but I do not know where one could find 250 ml containers because there are almost none on the market. For example, in the schools in my riding, students shop at the convenience stores around the school. If they are only offered 500, 600 or 700 ml portions, they will run into problems.
What does the industry do concretely to ensure that there is a real choice of reasonable individual portion sizes, as far as possible?
5:05 p.m.
Director of Public Affairs, Refreshments Canada
Thank you very much.
We've heard a lot of concern about portion sizes, to do with not just soft drinks but everything we eat and drink these days, that's for sure. Our industry has responded. You will find some smaller soft drink containers around. I think they're called “chubbies” in some areas. We in fact offer a wide range of package choices.
While you're right that there aren't many 250-millilitre serving sizes today, we've made a commitment to provide them. That just underlines, I think, our commitment to the issue. In order to develop that size, there's going to be extensive investment in redesigning packaging, in manufacturing packaging, and what not. But it is a response to what we're hearing. We understand that there is a concern about portion sizes, particularly for children.
I'm sorry that at that one convenience store they didn't offer a broader choice, but the fact is that choices are available.
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
What can the industry do to encourage the consumption of more reasonable portions? I believe that the distribution is somewhat problematic.
I know very well that the problem is not due only to the wholesalers; there is obviously a problem at the retail level. I do not know if profit margins with larger sizes are better, but surely I am not the only consumer who wants to buy a small sized soft drink whenever I allow myself to have a sweet beverage. They are very difficult to find in a service station; it is very rare.
Do you plan to work with retailers and to try to adjust profit margins, or pricing, in order for them to make a profit selling smaller sizes?