Thank you, Madam Chair.
As my colleagues already know, I am a doctor by training, and therefore I am very concerned by the issue of sodium. We know that an adequate amount of sodium is 1,200 mg to 1,500 mg per day, or half a teaspoonful per day, and that the maximum allowable is about 2,300 mg per day, or about one teaspoonful. Furthermore, most of the sodium that Canadians consume, that is 77%, comes from prepackaged foods which are bought in grocery stores.
My question is about labelling. I know that we will have to do a lot of work on the labelling of foods sold in grocery stores. This question is open to all. Has any thought been given to labelling? When shoppers go to the grocery store, they buy all sorts of things. Unfortunately, the labelling applies to the item they buy as a whole, with no reference to human needs or healthy limits. Have consumers been educated, are they aware?
Labels invariably say that the percentage of sodium is low compared to the daily recommended allowance for our bodies. The question is whether anything has been done to educate consumers on sodium.
Thank you.