TORONTO – Commodity groups such as canola and pulses are pouring money into research on the health benefits that can be derived from eating products made from their crops.
However, an advertising executive says communicating those benefits to Canadian consumers can be difficult.
Health Canada has strict regulations that force advertisers to largely avoid making references to health claims. Instead, they point consumers to websites where the benefit can be explained.
For example, Dannon ran an ad for its Activia yogurt in the United States explaining to viewers how eating the product every day for two weeks can deliver enough probiotic culture to help regulate digestive systems. The Canadian version of the ad contained no reference to that health claim.
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Tim Herbert, partner with Allard Johnson Communications, a Toronto advertising firm specializing in food and nutrition marketing, said Canadians are conservative by nature, often to our benefit as shown by the recent banking crisis where Canadian banks fared better than their U.S. counterparts.
However, he feels government regulators have gone overboard in this particular area.
Herbert said many health-care professionals agree that food manufacturers should be allowed to be more clear and aggressive in advancing their health claims.
“There are still enough checks and balances in place to keep out the bad guys, the guys who are going to make snake oil claims,” he said.
Robert Hunter, vice-president of communications for the Canola Council of Canada, said there are different issues when using claims in the U.S.
In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a qualified health claim that consuming 1.5 tablespoons of canola oil a day may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
Canola and olive oil are the only vegetable oils to achieve that status.
A recent survey of 1,004 U.S. grocery shoppers showed 75 percent of oil users looked on health claims favourably and 52 percent would be willing to pay more for a product featuring such a claim.
Hunter said this is the first solid piece of evidence that health claims help sell products.
However, food manufacturing companies have been reluctant to use the claim in advertising.
Hunter speculates it’s because most manufacturers offer a wide variety of oils and are reticent to promote one as the healthy alternative for fear of weakening sales in the rest of their product lines.
Processors also wonder what competitive advantage they can derive from a claim that everybody else can use. Weston is the only national brand using the canola claim on its products.
Hunter surmises it started using it precisely because nobody else was.
