Labelling
Providing information through nutrition labels
The food manufacturing industry's role is to provide nutrition information on food labels so consumers can make informed decisions about their food choices.
Food manufacturers have been providing nutrition information on their packages since the early 1980's when they appealed to government to allow labels on food products for the benefit of consumers. Prior to that time, nutrition labelling was not legally permitted in Canada.
Since that time, the food manufacturing industry has been working with Health Canada, consumer groups, dietitians and academia, leading the drive to offer Canadians more meaningful and relevant nutrition information on food products.
We support Health Canada' s regulatory initiative to expand nutrition labelling on all food packages by December 2005. This represents a commitment of over $300 million and over 50,000 products that will have additional nutrition information. The new regulations require packaged food products to carry a standardized nutrition label listing Calories plus 13 nutrients, including trans fat.
Over the last decade, the food manufacturing industry worked with Health Canada to introduce diet-related health claims. A health claim is a statement that links food to the reduced risk of diet-related diseases. Health claims can help Canadians more actively manage their dietary requirements by providing additional nutrition information to help them make informed choices.
With the introduction of five health claims in January 2003, manufacturers are now able to respond to consumer demands for more nutrition information and innovative products that will meet their dietary needs and help them achieve a greater level of well-being.
According to calculations by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Health Canada, the health benefit of the proposed nutrition information initiative, accruing over the next 20 years, is in the range of $5 billion for reductions in the direct and indirect costs associated with cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
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