REGINA – Guelph university professor Bruce Holub thinks some food producers are being discriminated against.
Many foods have beneficial health effects similar to some drugs, but producers can’t advertise those health effects and drug companies can, Holub said.
“If you’ve got a drug that (has medicinal effects) you can claim. If you’ve got a food that does it, you can’t claim,” he said during the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Rural Prairies Tomorrow conference.
“Regulatory agencies don’t have a category for foods with medicinal effects.”
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Holub, a professor of nutrition, said there are many health-engendering foods, which he called “nutriceuticals.”
These include flax seed, which can reduce heart disease, and garlic pills, which can lower cholesterol by more than 10 percent, he said.
Margaret Cheney, the chief of the nutrition evaluation division of the federal health department, said theoretically some foods could be sold with health claims if they proved their beneficial effects in a laboratory.
But food sellers often come up short when it comes to producing a consistent product and uniformity is a basic requirement for any drug designation. She said the effects of climate, soils and fertilizers make it difficult for people to prove their products will be the same “batch to batch to batch.”
As well, different varieties of the same crop can have radically different chemical characteristics.
The regulations may make it difficult for food producers to make health claims, but “it protects the consumer because if these claims are made, they have some assurance that the product will deliver,” said Cheney.
But Holub called many of the regulations “a hindrance.”
He said although scientific studies of the positive effects of foods are publicized in the media and nutritionists inform people about healthy foods, it is against the law to make the same claims on packages of food.
The regulations are different in Japan, where Holub said sellers have only to scientifically prove to the government their products have positive health effects before they can advertise those properties.
Holub said allowing producers of health-enhancing foods to advertise their products would create new opportunities to sell agricultural products.
But Cheney said health claims are allowed on food product packaging if it is proven to have positive health benefits.
Cheney agreed only drugs can be advertised as having health benefits, but she added some foods are considered drugs in the eyes of the law.
She said Trident chewing gum claims it helps prevent cavities and some baking soda packages claim the substance works as an antacid.
“People commonly see these as a food, but they’re being sold as a drug,” she said.
