Service(s) related to this article:  Food Label & Claims, Food & Beverages, Product & Label Development

Canada’s Food Guide is getting a makeover, and Health Canada is expected to roll out the revised guidelines in early 2018, which will mark the first update since 2007.

Health Canada’s revised food guide highlights the importance of knowledge and skills relating to health and nutrition, advising that Canadians shop for nutritious foods, plan and cook healthy meals, which “can help strengthen positive eating habits and help children develop healthy attitudes towards food.” Overall, the food guide is meant to give people advice on nutritional content. One of the most important things about our health is “what we eat and how we eat”.

Although the final version of the revised food guide could still change, but based on what we have seen so far, here’s how the new food guide can have a positive impact on your family:

• It will bring current nutrition information to schools
• It will improve daycare centre and school lunch (cafeteria/catering) meals
• It will make you think twice about what your children drink.
• It will help kids build a positive relationship with food
• It encourages your family to dine together.
• It will (hopefully) inspire more home-cooked meals
• It will encourage more meatless meals
• It helps the planet and reduce food waste

As part of the revised food guide, Health Canada considers a ban on advertising and marketing junk food to kids and teens, and looks to add front-of-package symbols warning consumers about foods that are high in salt, sugar or saturated fat. Moreover, under the proposed changes, these warning signs could end up on the front of homogenized milk, high-fat cheeses and sweetened yogurts as well. Conversely, food manufacturers are also worried and arguing all of the coming changes to the front of the package and the nutrition labels, will cost industry an estimated $1.8 billion.

It is mandatory for certain foods to have a Nutrition Facts Table that is correctly formatted and contains core nutrients and calories in a defined amount of food. To ensure you are going to market with a compliant food, dicentra can assist by reviewing your food label for any regulatory concerns. Our experts at dicentra have first-hand knowledge of food regulations and guidance’s to help you achieve compliance with your food product and will provide you with our comments, concerns and recommendations.

dicentra provides sought-after guidance on product and marketing compliance, quality assurance and safety standards, research and development, new ingredient assessments and overall regulatory strategies for food and health-related products sold in North American marketplaces. We can also assist you with your marketing material reviews from labels, brochures, advertisements to websites for Canada and the USA. We can be reached at 1-866-647-3279 or info@dicentra.com.