Health Canada should change the law in order to force food manufacturers to include nutrition information on labels, a coalition of health, nutrition and consumer advocates said last week.
Nutrition labeling has been required in the United States since 1994.
The advocates told an Ottawa news conference June 10 that better labeling information would help consumers make healthier food choices and encourage companies to market healthier products.
Helpful to consumers
“The lack of nutrition information makes it difficult for consumers to follow the advice to limit their consumption of fat, sugar and sodium,” said University of Montreal nutritionist Monique Julien.
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The group of advocates organized by the Washington and Toronto-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest included public health officers, doctors and the public advocacy group Council of Canadians.
A 21-page report produced by the group said Canadian consumers deserve better. Few product labels provide nutrition information and when they do, the information is often hard to read, incomplete or misleading.
“To address those problems, nutrition labeling should be mandatory and include all nutrients that are essential to follow the recommendations of public health authorities,” said the report.
“Nutrition information must also be easy to read and locate on the label.”
They said that exceptions could be made for smaller companies. In the United States, companies with consumer food sales worth less than $50,000 a year can be exempt as long as they make no nutrition claims at all.
Poor labeling cited
It gave some specific examples of label nutrition claims that the group considers inadequate or inappropriate.
Campbell’s V8 juice labels note vitamin content but do not indicate the high level of sodium content. Heinz Spaghetti labels promote the fact that the product is “a good source of vitamin A and iron” but indicate nothing about fat, saturated fat and sodium content.
The report said that since nutrition labeling has been required in the U.S., more than 4,000 new low-fat products have been put onto the market to appeal to health-conscious eaters.
