In the 1980s and 1990s, actor Wilford Brimley pitched the healthful benefits of oats in commercials for Quaker Oats with the tag line “It’s the right thing to do and the tasty way to do it.”
He was an American actor working for an American company, but the ads were also popular north of the border and the idea that oats were a healthful food helped drive Canadian sales.
Today, the Canadian and American governments each have systems to assess and approve more specific food health claims.
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But given that Canadian consumers are constantly exposed to advertising and information from the United States, some Canadian commodity growers question spending energy, time and money to obtain a health claim in Canada when they can piggyback on an American one.
Again, oats provides an example. The U.S. oat industry obtained a health claim from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1997, stating that soluble fibre from oats, as part of a low fat diet, may reduce the risk of heart disease.
A similar claim was approved in the United Kingdom in 2004.
While the Canadian oat industry has never pursued a health claim in this country, industry officials say they believe the public is well aware of the health benefits of oats.
Dwayne Anderson, a farmer from Fosston, Sask., and chair of the Saskatchewan Oat Development Commission, thinks there is a widespread recognition among Canadians that oats are a healthy choice.
“I believe that’s because of the large amount of advertising in television and in magazines about oats being good for you,” he said.
Much of that originates in the U.S. and is based on the U.S. health claim, but the message gets through to Canadian consumers.
The commission recently discussed pursuing a health claim with Health Canada. Some thought it a good idea, but others weren’t so sure.
A senior official from Quaker Oats, which spearheaded the effort to obtain the health claim from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, cautioned the meeting that it would be an expensive, time-consuming project.
“He said that to go and burn a whole lot of time and money to do it in Canada as well would be silly because of the size of our population and the fact the benefits of oats have been so widely advertised,” said Anderson.
However, Anderson added it might be a good idea to conduct a survey to determine whether Canadians are as aware of the health benefits of oats as the industry believes.
There’s a widely held view in Canada that the process of obtaining a health claim is more onerous here than in the U.S., a view supported in part by the fact so many more claims have been allowed in the U.S.
It’s difficult to directly compare health claim processes across borders because every country has its own definitions of health claims and standards for approvals.
However, there are differences that seem to support the idea that the American system is easier to deal with.
For example, the FDA has three levels of health claim approvals, reflecting varying degrees of scientific evidence for the claim. They include qualified health claims based on “limited scientific evidence,” thus reducing the cost of gathering definitive scientific data.
Also, many parts of the FDA’s approval process include deadlines requiring the agency to respond to applicants or provide information within a specified time frame, thus speeding the process.
Some Canadian commodity groups say it may make more sense to work with U.S. partners to obtain a claim there and then rely on cross border information flow to spread the word.
The flax industry has been working with a consultant in Washington, D.C., looking at the prospects of obtaining a qualified health claim from the FDA, similar to canola oil.
“They believe it would be possible, but we need a little more clinical data before pursuing it,” said Barry Hall, chair of the Flax Council of Canada, adding the U.S. system is more amenable than Canada’s.
He said the flax industry is now seeking “generally regarded as safe” status from U.S. authorities, which it expects to receive in 2008. It would likely next go to the FDA for a qualified health claim and then perhaps to Health Canada.
Peter Watts of Pulse Canada said his organization is considering making a request for a health claim in Canada, but has also talked with its U.S. counterparts about working together on a health claim with FDA.
“The regulatory processes are quite different and the Canadian one is more difficult,” he said, noting the U.S. system allows for qualified health claims and product-specific claims.
However, he added that doesn’t rule out the pulse industry pursuing a claim in Canada and he urged Health Canada to make its process easier.
