Who here has ever struggled with a nutrition label when figuring out which [insert food item here] to buy? With different serving sizes, different units, and different companies it can be really hard to compare labels and choose the healthiest product, and who really has the time to compare every single label?
Eating too much sugar, saturated fats, and sodium can be bad news for the body, but eating too much of these things is pretty common. This isn't consumers fault, since trying to figure out which foods are sources of these things can be pretty hard. There are so many people who are working to make nutrition labels easier to understand, but they often need a consumers perspective to understand how best to help, and that's where we can come in.
What is Happening With Food Labels?
Health Canada is a federal institution who's main responsibility is to help Canadians maintain and improve their health.
As part of their Healthy Eating Strategy, Health Canada is introducing mandatory front-of-package-labels that warns consumers when foods are high in sodium, sugar, or saturated fat. They are still deciding what those symbols should look like so that consumers can best use them to choose healthier foods.
Dieititans of Canada supports these changes, and pointed out in a recent news release that these labels could help consumers compare products more easily and may influence food manufacturers to produce healthier versions of products.
What Can You Do About it?
Health Canada made a survey for people to choose what kind of symbols they want to see on the new labels. The survey is called the Food Front-of-Package Nutrition Symbol Consumer Consultation, and will be open until April 26th, 2018. Health Canada is looking for perspectives from as many Canadians as possible so make sure you access the survey here and tell Health Canada what you think the symbols should look like.
If you want to stay connected to what’s happening with these labels, follow Health Canada on Facebook or Twitter.