Partial harmonization of nutrient claims
in works
Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 154: 1069
Health Canada is consulting with consumer, industry and health associations in an attempt to harmonize more closely with American requirements for nutrient-content claims concerning energy/calories, fat, saturated fatty acids, cholesterol, sodium, sugar, protein and dietary fibre. The proposals will have a significant impact on the labelling and advertising of foods sold in Canada, as well as on the reformulation of foods to meet the criteria for nutrient content claims; some serving sizes for the declaration of nutrient content may change as well.
As an example, Canada proposes to adopt US compositional criteria for "free," "low" and comparative nutrient-content claims, with the exception of those for cholesterol, saturated fatty acids and sugar. Canadian criteria for the claim "light" include a reduction in fat or energy/calories but are less stringent than US criteria. Canada will maintain its criteria for claims respecting dietary fibre, but adopt US criteria for protein. The review was necessary because of a commitment under the North American Free Trade Agreement to work toward equivalent requirements for food labelling.
CMAJ April 1, 1996 (vol 154, no 7)