Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, clerk, and committee members. It is my pleasure to be here on behalf of Food and Consumer Products of Canada. We are the largest national industry association representing companies that manufacture and distribute food and consumer products in this country.

Health committee  If it was before your time, we'll blame Anne for the problems.

Health committee  It was launched in 2002. There was some education and some money spent by government in terms of developing some awareness around that. There was another attempt by Health Canada, not the most resourced campaign, around 2005 or 2006. We really haven't done a lot. It's inherentl

Health committee  I'm happy to start. Let's rally around two common points, confusion and the need for more education and awareness. It was Minister Anne McLellan who launched the nutrition facts table back around 2002. There was a bit of noise--

Health committee  I'm happy to respond to that. As many of you will know, schedule M of the food and drug regulations does outline the criteria. I want to be clear that there are criteria in place in stores, restaurants, and so on across the country, and those criteria are enforced by CFIA. One

Health committee  I'd like to see the chocolate one, because I'm not going to make an assumption based on seeing one of two products. I want to be clear that there are rules in place. Our members follow those rules. If there are compelling issues that any groups around the table or Health Canada

Health committee  Definitely. I look at the work we've done in reformulation. About 84% of the trans fats have been taken out of the food supply in just three years. The sodium work we're doing already speaks for itself. When you talk about labelling around sodium, there are strict requirements ar

Health committee  Yes, the market is driving it. Canadians are more educated. There is a lot of confusion out there, but we are more educated and aware, given the Internet. People are more aware of what's out there and what they're eating. There's still a lot of confusion, but consumers are demand

Health committee  I just want to correct the record on the sodium example in the U.K. François is correct that the U.K. did embark on a program. They were the second country. It took Finland 23 years to reduce sodium by 30%, and they're still out of the stratosphere, given where they are in the

Health committee  I think the difference is that people need food, but they don't need tobacco. I think we need to make that first point of delineation there very clearly. There's another thing I think we need to do. I don't know if the committee has followed some of the work Dr. Kellie Leitch ha

Health committee  The cracker example is a good one because one of those examples, the four-cracker one, is a much thicker, denser cracker than the other one. The other one is more of a flaked, thin cracker. Just think of the cracker aisle at the store and the different options.

Health committee  Based on the food guide, it goes back to recommended serving size. What are you going to eat in one sitting? Because of the size of the crackers--a thinner cracker versus a denser cracker--you would tend to eat nine of those and four of the other. That's the example. I'm not go

Health committee  This example does reflect the Canada Food Guide. Once again, for lack of a better comparison, you're dealing with nine smaller crackers and four bigger crackers.

Health committee  I think it's nine and four. Once again, the premise of the table, the food guide, is that it's for the average person, but as Nathalie said, a child is going to be different from my grandfather, who is going to be different from my 35-year-old brother.

Health committee  The comparison is there. I don't know what else to say, to be honest. It's based on comparable servings of food. You would eat a bowl of cereal versus a bowl of cereal. It might be denser, thicker oat granola type of cereal versus a flake cereal. It might be bigger crackers and s