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Canadian Food Labelling Changes 2017
The Government of Canada has made several changes to the nutrition facts table and list of ingredients on food labels. Food industry has 5 years to implement the changes but you can already see them on many food items. What are these changes?
Nutrition Facts Table
Serving size is easier to find and is more consistent with similar foods which makes it easier to compare products. They will also better reflect the amount that Canadians eat at one sitting. For example: 2 slices of bread or ¾ cup yogurt.
Serving size for single serve cartons will be the amount in the whole container.
Calories is in a larger font, in bold and underlined
% DV have been revised based on current science and a new %DV for total sugars has been added
Potassium has been added to the nutrient list because it is important for maintaining healthy blood pressure and most Canadians aren’t getting enough
Vitamin A and C have been removed because most Canadians get enough of these nutrients in their diets.
The amounts of calcium, potassium and iron have been added in milligrams (mg)
A footnote has been added about %DV at the bottom explaining that 5% is a little and 15% is a lot of that nutrient.
Figure 1. Nutrition facts table changes.
List of Ingredients
Grouping sugar-based ingredients in brackets after the word sugar to help consumers identify all the sources of sugar added to a food.
Food colours will be listed by their common names
Text will be in black on a white or neutral background
Bullets or comas will separate ingredients.
Figure 2. List of ingredients.
References:
Health Canada (2017, July 24) Food Labelling Changes. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-labelling-changes.html
Updates to the Canada’s Food Guide are under revision. Stay Tuned.