Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm Janet Beauvais, director general of the food directorate at Health Canada. I'm pleased to be here with you again today to speak further about nutrition labelling in Canada and how nutrition labelling can assist Canadians in making healthy food choices.
Health Canada’s food directorate is responsible for establishing policies and standards relating to the safety and nutritional quality of food. We are also responsible for the health and safety aspects of the labelling and advertising of foods sold in Canada. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is responsible for enforcing these policies and standards.
In 1998 voluntary nutrition labelling was put in place in Canada. In combination with nutrient content claims such as low fat or reduced calories, this labelling became a powerful incentive for industry and led to increased access to a number of reformulated products. However, the labels of most products with less favourable nutrient profiles continued to stay silent about their nutrient content, leaving consumers with limited information upon which to make comparisons between products.
After extensive consultations with stakeholders, mandatory nutrition labelling regulations came into effect for most prepackaged foods in Canada on December 12, 2005. Under these new regulations, information about the caloric value and the nutrient content of a food must be conveyed in a standardized format, known as the nutrition facts panel.
Consumer research has indicated that the consistent look of the nutrition facts table facilitates comparisons between products and makes nutrition information easier to find and use. It was envisioned that the provision of mandatory nutrition information would not only help consumers make healthier food choices, but would further act as an incentive for the food industry to produce healthier products. Evidence is mounting that the intended effect is taking place. For example, since the requirement to list trans fat became mandatory under the new regulations in December 2005, a great number of food companies have reformulated their products to remove trans fat, and trans fat consumption has dropped by at least 41%.
The regulations also contain provisions for the use of over 40 nutrient content claims on the package. These claims allow industry to make declarations on a product’s label about its caloric or nutrient content, for example, low fat, so that manufacturers can highlight a particular nutrient content of the product.
While very informative, the mandatory nutrition labelling system does not make a judgment about the overall nutritional value of a food. In order for it to be used properly, consumers must be educated about, and dedicated to, making healthier food choices. This is why in many countries, including Canada, better choice slogans, symbols, or logos have started to appear on the principal display panel of some food labels as a quick way of providing information to consumers on some aspect of the nutritional value of the food. This is referred to as a healthier or wiser choice slogan, symbol, logo, or endorsement.
The conditions for displaying these label identifiers, logos, or symbols are set by endorsing organizations such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation with its Health Check program, which I'm sure we'll hear further about today, or by the manufacturer itself when it’s a corporate initiative, such as PepsiCo's Smart Spot. These conditions vary from one program to another. They vary within programs. They vary from one food category to another, such as crackers or beverages, and are dependent upon the objectives of the endorsing organization. For example, in the case of a corporate initiative, the goal is often to highlight a certain nutritional profile of a company’s products. I would note that none of these programs has been endorsed by Health Canada.
As it is difficult to make a simple judgment about a food overall, especially foods that have both positive and negative nutritional characteristics, these logos often only refer to limited nutritional characteristics of the food. For example, a logo might indicate that the product is low in fat but not indicate that the product is high in sodium. Health Canada continues to recommend that consumers use the nutrition facts table to get complete nutrient information.
The proliferation of these third-party logos is a new phenomenon in Canada, and concerns have been raised regarding the risk of creating confusion among consumers. Some countries, such as Australia, are now investigating the establishment of basic rules to govern these practices and ensure some consistency in order to prevent consumer confusion.
As the committee heard recently, the United Kingdom has developed a unique labelling system, known as signposting, that goes one step further than the Canadian nutrition facts table by providing a judgment around the nutritional value of foods. It is important to note, however, that unlike Canada, the United Kingdom does not have mandatory nutrition labelling for most pre-packaged foods.
By providing information on calorie content and the 13 nutrients, including fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, and a range of other nutrients, Canada’s current labelling requirements allow for more meaningful and fulsome comparison among products than the four-nutrient traffic light labelling system used in the United Kingdom.
As previously mentioned, Canada’s mandatory nutrition labelling regulations have been in force for just over a year. Since the regulations came into effect, Canadians have become increasingly knowledgeable about how to use labels to make informed decisions.
According to the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition’s recent 2006 Tracking Nutrition Trends survey, 77% of Canadians get nutrition information from the product labels. In addition, in 2006, 67% of Canadians reported that they were able to find what they were looking for and they attached credibility to these labels. However, not surprisingly, with its recent introduction into regulation, some Canadians are still finding it difficult to understand and read the new nutrition facts table.
Could nutrition labelling be further simplified by setting parameters that would allow the voluntary addition of a colour code for nutrients or other such logos? Without adequate time for government to conduct consumer research on this type of expanded nutrition labelling, such as logos or symbols, I cannot answer that question.
Let me conclude by saying that the mandatory nutrition facts table, in addition to nutrient content claims and combined with education on their use, offers a significant public health opportunity to improve the nutritional health and well-being of Canadians. Health Canada will be continuing to monitor the use of nutrition labelling and the nutrition facts table to ensure that it's achieving its desired objectives.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.