Increased education on food and product labels called for in Canada

Council of Food and Nutrition says labels are credible source, but not always understood.

David Bellm -- Packaging Digest, 10/30/2009 12:59:17 PM

The Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition (CCFN) released its 2009 Tracking Nutrition Trends (TNT): 'A 20 Year History' report. A key finding of the report is that food product labels continue to be Canadians' most credible and highly used source of information on food and nutrition. The report also reveals that while food labels are listed as a highly credible source, various statistics suggest that Canadians still don't fully understand the information that is reported on them.

"Based on the findings of this 20 year report, CCFN is calling on government, health associations, the food industry and all health related sectors to step up education of food nutrition labeling to help all Canadians have a better understanding of what their food contains," says Francy Pillo-Blocka, President and CEO of the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition.

CCFN has been tracking various trends of sources of nutrition information for the past 20 years and product labels have consistently been rated as the number one source. In 2008, 68 per cent of Canadians reported product labels as their prime source of nutrition information, followed by the internet at 51 per cent and magazines, newspapers and books at 46 per cent.

"Canadian food labels were developed with a large number of stakeholders to ensure information is presented fully and clearly to consumers," says Pillo-Blocka. "The food labels have been well received by Canadians and now the next step is to help us better understand all of the valuable information on the label."

The report shows that Canadians tend to focus on specific information when looking at food product labels. In 2008, ingredients (80 per cent), best before date (74 per cent) and nutrition facts tables (71 per cent) were the information that consumers consulted the most.

While the TNT report shows that consumers trust and actively use the information to stay healthy, current statistics on Canadians obesity and other health related issues have reached epidemic proportion. This suggests that consumers still need to have a better understanding of how to use the information on food product labels for improved health.