Dietitians of Canada

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Sep 01 2010

What are POP Nutrition Labelling Programs?

Point-of-Purchase Nutrition Labelling or POP programs aim to help you choose healthier foods at the "point of purchase" or where you buy food - places like grocery stores, restaurants, cafeterias, and vending machines.
POP programs create specific nutrition criteria or guidelines for foods. Foods that meet these guidelines are labeled with a symbol to help you identify them. Each POP program uses different symbols and can have different guidelines.
POP programs in grocery stores have been developed by food manufacturers, grocery retailers or by third party organizations such as the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada.
POP programs that run in restaurants, workplaces and schools have been developed by food service companies, or by public health units working together with non-governmental organizations, and/or food supply vendors.

How do POP Programs help you make better food choices?

POP Programs may help you by:

Increasing awareness of health and nutrition at the point of purchase.
Giving you a variety of "healthier" foods from which to choose.
Helping you choose foods that contain more or less of a certain nutrient.
Helping to create a healthier food supply. Estimates from a POP program in Australia show that about 235 tons of salt have been removed from the Australian food supply by reducing the amount of salt in 12 food products by 40%.

POP Programs may create confusion for consumers because:

Each individual POP program defines the nutrition guidelines that foods must meet to qualify for their program, resulting in different guidelines in different programs. Some guidelines focus on desirable nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, while others focus on nutrients we should get less of, like fat or sodium. Because of this, similar products with different POP symbols may not be comparable.
There can be many reasons why a food does not carry a POP symbol - it may not meet the program's guidelines, or it may not have applied to be part of a POP program. Foods that do not carry a POP symbol may be as nutritious as foods that carry a symbol.
It is unclear how the price of a food is impacted, if at all, by being involved in a POP program.

POP programs continue to evolve. Meanwhile, consumers can use these programs to improve their food choices by:

Understanding the purpose of the POP program and what the symbol indicates - is the product lower in fat, lower in sodium, higher in fiber, or a source of a vitamin?
Using the information on the food label such as the Nutrition Facts table and the ingredient list to compare foods that have a POP symbol with foods that do not carry a POP symbol.
Considering how the food fits within their overall eating pattern and with Canada's Food Guide. Just because a food carries a POP symbol does not mean that people can eat unlimited amounts of the food. As well, just because people eat a food that is part of a POP program does not mean they have a "healthy" diet.
Remembering that it is the balance of food choices made over time that determines whether or not a diet is "healthy".