Dietitians of Canada

Nutrition Labelling

Background

Canadians can make more informed food choices by reading the information found on food labels, such as:

• Nutrition Facts table
• Nutrition claims
• Ingredient list
• Allergy information

More than two thirds of Canadians read food labels to help them decide which foods to buy and eat. People with food allergies can use labels to help them avoid certain allergens.

Position

• Helping consumers make healthy food choices at the point of purchase is important to dietitians.
• DC regularly provides its view to Health Canada on key nutrition labelling concerns. We advocate for consistent nutrition information on packaged foods.
• We support the use of labelling information that is highly visible, clear, consistent and easy to find by consumers.
• We also want to increase consumers’ awareness about nutrition labelling and enhance their skills to enable them to use this information to make healthy food choices.

Actions

• DC presents written briefs to the government on key labelling policies. We have a long history of consulting with our members on proposed labelling policies and providing this feedback to policy makers with the government.
• The Nutrition Facts Table, Health Claims, Point of Purchase labels and allergen labelling are some of the topics where dietitians have helped to shape national policy.
• We recently submitted briefs on precautionary labelling and on enhanced labelling of food allergens, gluten sources and added sulphites as well as on proposed principles for revising Canada’s Gluten-free labelling.