Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Carol is here in case you ask me tough questions.
I have five goals for today. I am going to explain why we have launched the Health Check program, and how it works.
I will highlight some key differences between the Health Check program and the current industry program to demonstrate that Health Check has been broadly accepted by both industry and consumers. I will differentiate between the Canadian and the U.K. environments for food labelling programs and propose how Canada can move forward by supporting Canada's existing pre-eminent food information program.
All that in 10 minutes.
So why did we start Health Check? It was started in response to consumer demand for a simple way to choose healthier products. For us at HSFC the rationale was that poor nutrition, especially a high-fat diet, is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Heart disease and stroke share common diet-related risk factors with many other chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and kidney disease. So it's important to recognize it is not a heart-smart program; it is really a program for healthy eating, not for heart-healthy eating.
Most Canadians consider nutrition to be important when they buy food, but they find the information confusing, as has been said, even after the advent of mandatory nutrition labelling. For many vulnerable populations, they just can't decipher that label. Shoppers are always in a hurry. They've told us they want something to help them make a decision quickly. According to our research, 92% of Canadians support one standard symbol.
How does Health Check work? Well, it provides consumers with a visual logo, as you can see on this can of beans. It's a quick visual reference on the food packaging. The awareness of Health Check is sitting at about 67% of principal grocery shoppers.
The logo guarantees that the food meets the specific nutrition criteria of Canada's Food Guide. It's based on guidelines and nutrition recommendations for general healthy eating, as I mentioned. It's comprehensive. It encompasses, in one check mark, the nutrition criteria for salt, fat, fibre, protein, and vitamins. Industry programs, as you've heard, often look only at one or two of those criteria, not all of them, and the proposed traffic light system in the U.K. is also nutrient specific.
Regarding the cost recovery model for HSFC, it is not a fundraiser. The money that companies pay to belong to Health Check goes right back into the program to build it. There are nominal fees to cover the product review, the operating and promotional costs, but a small company can join for $300. The fees are not a barrier to participation and are not seen that way by the companies, nor do they increase the cost of the food item.
Health Check was developed in consultation with Health Canada and CFIA.
We've been strong and active supporters, through Health Check, of the government's food guide and the nutrition labelling legislation. This support, along with our recent trans fat work and our partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society and the fruit and vegetable growers on the “five to ten a day” campaign, is part of our strong mission focus on healthy eating and a belief that we can help the consumers.
We're currently in the process of developing criteria for sugar in light of the new food guide and will be reviewing all of our criteria to ensure continued alignment with the guide. Health Check is influencing Canada's food supply. There are now over 1,000 products in the program--including McCain's Old South line of orange juice, we're happy to say--in 70 different categories, representing over 100 companies. It's doubled its size in the last year.
It is a truly national program. In fact the Health Check system was started. in Quebec.
Health Check is not only successful in helping consumers choose healthier products, it has helped make the products healthier. Many leading brands have reformulated to meet our nutrition criteria, and I've brought two of them here. It includes Campbell's, Heinz, Maple Leaf, and Dare. These reformulations took the companies over a year to do, and they're very committed to the program. For example, Campbell's recently reformulated 25 of their 40 soups to fit into the program. They had to reduce the amount of salt by about 20% to do so.
We frankly need stricter criteria for salt in Canada, and we would like to work with Health Canada to establish these standards. We don't do it alone, we do it with Health Canada. They're not our standards, they're Canada's standards.
Health Check is growing. Retail outlets are now coming onboard. Sobeys, Canada's number two grocery retailer, joined in 2006 with their private label, the Compliments line of products. Their objective is to eventually have over 300 of their products in Health Check. Two more retailers are joining Health Check this year.
Health Check has recently expanded into food services such as Swiss Chalet, because 40% of our food dollar is spent outside the home, as you all know and have heard before. HSFC signed a contract this week with the British Columbia government to roll out a Health Check restaurant model in British Columbia restaurants.
Our research has shown that consumers expect such programs to be run by a health authority, and if it's not Health Canada, then it's a group like the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Many consumers are suspicious of the food information programs established by food manufacturers.
I draw your attention to the handout, at the bottom of page three, which compares the industry food information programs with the Health Check program on several elements. I'm not going to go through it. I think I've spoken to most of them, but it's been a good summary up to now.
Page four in your handout shows the different labels that are now in place in Canada. We hope it shows you why it is that the consumer is getting confused. Not only are there a growing number of programs, but to the consumer a check mark is a check mark. We're actually getting calls from our donors who are irate that our check mark is appearing on Diet Pepsi. The consumer sees a check mark as a check mark.
Health Check is already Canada's pre-eminent food information program. It was the first into the field, and it's the largest by far. The second largest program has 200 or less products. We're at least five times larger than one of the industry programs. We're the only third-party unbiased program. We're non-exclusive, well recognized, and our criteria are totally transparent. The food industry itself has embraced Health Check. Over 100 food manufacturing companies, large and small, and three retail chains will soon be onboard, and we're moving into food service. Consumers trust us, and 87% say they trust us compared to as low as 19% for the food industry programs. Health Check incorporates, simplifies, and full supports Canada's Food Guide.
I thought I'd take one minute to outline the comparison between the U.K. and the Canadian situations.
In the U.K. there's no mandatory food labelling. There are a plethora of industry programs. There is no Health Check equivalent. The government is introducing the traffic light proposal. Consumer confusion is extremely high, and there's growing industry and government animosity as a result of the introduction of the traffic light proposal.
In Canada we have mandatory labelling. There are currently only a few industry programs. We have Health Check, which, as I said, is a large and respected non-biased program. This government is exploring where it should go on food labelling, but there is a risk of growing confusion if the government doesn't act. As I mentioned, instead of industry and government animosity, there is a strong industry support of Health Check. Obviously it's not universal or there wouldn't be other programs, but in all the companies that have moved to another label, they've had discussions with us first, and that's very important to understand. They didn't join because not all of their products would fit, and they wanted all or nothing.
In conclusion, it is our belief that Canada does not need the U.K. traffic light program or any equivalent. Our environments are, thankfully, very different because of wise decisions that governments have made in Canada about food labelling. Canada has a pre-eminent program that consumers trust and that the food industry has widely embraced.
Health Check complements nutrition labelling, it doesn't undermine it. We believe government should publicly and strongly support Health Check/Visez santé as the standard for other programs to emulate, and promote it on the food guide website and other places. An overwhelming number of Canadian consumers want a trusted, simple, standardized symbol.
We're not asking the government to mandate exclusivity, nor to give us any money. We're just saying this is one program, based on what you declare is healthy eating, established in consultation with the government, that 97% of consumers say they trust.
We're saying we have a window of opportunity before the market gets flooded with a plethora of programs, as is happening in the U.K., an opportunity to not confound and confuse the consumers even more. Worse than confusion will be consumer skepticism of the value of any of the check marks, and that's why we feel we have to strongly back the Health Check mark, because it is so well respected, and we can't afford to have that respect eroded on behalf of consumers.
Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much. Carol and I will answer all of your questions.