Good afternoon, everyone. I am Paul-Guy Duhamel, the Public Affairs Manager for Dietitians of Canada. I want to thank the members of this committee for inviting us to share our vision of food labelling with them.
Dietitians of Canada is the national professional association representing over 6,000 dietitians across the country. Dietitians are a regulated health profession in all provinces of Canada. We are university trained and recognized as a credible and reliable source of food and nutrition information. The Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition's survey, “Tracking Nutrition Trends”, confirms this. We serve the public as educators, public policy-makers, researchers, and managers. We work in a variety of sectors, including health care, industry, academia, government, and non-governmental organizations. We support and advance ethical, evidence-based best practices in dietetics and the profession's unique body of knowledge of food and nutrition. Promotion and support for the healthy lives of all Canadians through positive eating habits is one of DC's priorities.
The nutrition label is one of the key tools consumers use to make informed food choices, including the nutrition fact table, the list of ingredients, health claims, and allergy warnings. In fact, over two-thirds of Canadians read food labels to help them decide which food to buy and eat. Helping consumers choose healthier foods using the food label is important to dietitians. Labelling information must be highly visible, clear, consistent, and easy to find by consumers. The key concerns we present to you today are about consistency: consistency in using criteria used for point-of-purchase nutrition programs, consistency in portion size used in nutrition fact tables, and consistency in the way foods are regulated in Canada.
There has been a proliferation of point-of-purchase nutrition programs, including front-of-package programs and those in supermarkets, restaurants, and school cafeterias. Although the intent of many programs is to make the job of consumers a little easier when choosing healthier foods, for many it has added to the confusion and could lead to mistrust among consumers. Unlike the nutrition fact table, ingredient lists, and the nutrition claims on food products, these programs are not regulated; furthermore, unpackaged food products such as fresh fruits and vegetables, which we are encouraging Canadians to eat more of, are generally not included.
If we look at these programs more closely, we can see that there's a lack of consistency. Some standards emphasize nutrients such as vitamins and minerals whereas other standards are focused on the absence of nutrients such as fats, sugar or salt. The symbols and logos used by agrifood companies vary a great deal, from simple checkmarks to a rainbow of colours.
Dietitians of Canada's opinion on point-of-purchase nutrition programs is very similar to the recommendation this committee made in 2007. All point-of-purchase private nutrition programs would be even more beneficial to Canadian consumers if it was mandatory for them to use the same criteria and claims. Dietitians have a unique skill set to inform this process and are interested in working with other key stakeholders, with federal government leadership, to develop these criteria.
The nutrition facts table on pre-packaged food products is regulated and is a tool that is valued and used by many Canadians, but it is a challenge to use this information effectively, especially for those with lower reading levels or education. The recent joint Health Canada and Food and Consumer Products of Canada initiative to help Canadians understand the percentage of daily value information on the label may help, and we support this effort. However, it remains a challenge for consumers to compare products based on the percentage DV--daily value--when the portion size for similar food products varies.
I prepared three examples for you. Here are three cereals that my children eat. A serving of the first cereal is one cup or 58 grams, the second cereal is three-quarters of a cup or 29 grams and a serving of the third cereal is 20 biscuits or 54 grams. This is inconsistent to say the least and it makes things more difficult for Canadians.
To compare products with others, we need to have a calculator, to be familiar with the famous rule of three and to repeat the operation for each of the 13 nutrients included in the chart of nutritional values. You can understand that, both for professionals who are called upon to teach the use of food labels and for the Canadians who refer to them on a daily basis to be able to make educated choices, it would be good to have standard servings. Then it would be possible to compare products.
The percentage DV is calculated using recommended nutrient daily intake recommendations issued 20 years ago. Nutrition knowledge has advanced and recommendations for nutrient intakes have evolved. Percentage DV needs to reflect this evolution.
Let's move on to another category of foods: natural health products in food format. I have a few examples here.
These products look like other foods and beverages on the market that are regulated as foods. They look like foods and beverages that are regulated under the current law, but they're not. They're regulated as natural health products, and standards for the product formulation and labelling are very different. You can recognize these foods on the shelf or in vending machines as they are without nutrition fact tables and sometimes carry an NHP, natural health product, number. There are hundreds of these products available alongside similar foods and beverages that are regulated as foods under the Food and Drugs Act. The consumer cannot compare calories, saturated fat, trans fat or sodium content of these foods. The inconsistency in labelling is but one of our concerns with natural health products. Our view on this has been outlined in our paper called “Position on Discretionary Fortification of Foods with Vitamins and Minerals and the Natural Health Products/Food Interface”, which is available on our website. It has been supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Public Health Association.