Question Period Note: HEALTHY EATING STRATEGY

• In October 2016, Health Canada launched the multi-year Healthy Eating Strategy, which consists of a suite of initiatives that aim to improve the food environment and help make the healthier choice the easier choice for all Canadians. Recognizing that a healthy population is key to reducing vulnerability to health events, the 2021 Minister of Health mandate letter included a commitment to promote healthy eating by advancing the Healthy Eating Strategy. This includes finalizing front-of-package nutrition labelling and supporting restrictions on the commercial marketing of food and beverages to children.

• Obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases are critical issues for Canadians and the Canadian health care system. We now know that they increase the risk of COVID-19 severity and mortality.
• Our Government is committed to protecting the health of Canadians and creating conditions to make the healthier choice easier for all.
• Significant progress has been made by improving nutrition labelling, eliminating industrially produced trans fats in the food supply, releasing a new Canada’s Food Guide, and publishing new sodium reduction tagets for processed foods.
• Although more remains to be done, we have also continued to advance work on front-of-pack nutrition labelling and restricting food advertising to children.

IF PRESSED ON FRONT-OF-PACK NUTRITION LABELLING…
• Poor diet, particularly a diet high in sodium, sugars and saturated fat, is one of the major risk factors for chronic diseases.
• As stated in the Minister of Health’s December 2021 mandate letter, Health Canada remains committed to finalizing FOP labelling regulations to promote healthy food choices and is working towards publishing the final regulations soon, following extensive consultations and consumer research.

IF PRESSED ON ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN…
• As outlined in my Mandate letter, our Government is committed to supporting restrictions on the commercial marketing of foods and beverages to children, in order to protect them from the risks of chronic diseases caused by an unhealthy diet.
• In June 2021, four industry associations launched a self-regulatory advertising code, to be implemented by the summer of 2023. We appreciate their efforts to develop a new code governing their practices for advertising to children.
• In February 2022, my colleague Ms. Patricia Lattanzio M.P. introduced a Private Member’s Bill, Bill C-252-Child Health Protection Act, to prohibit food and beverage marketing directed at children. This Bill is currently moving through the parliamentary review process.
• Health Canada is actively reviewing the content of the Bill to determine the types of protection it could offer and what could be required to support it.
• Health Canada continues a range of activities, including reviewing international initiatives, new evidence as well as the results of its monitoring activities on advertising practices to children, to determine an appropriate approach to supporting restrictions in Canada.
• As Health Canada moves forward, it remains committed to engaging with all key stakeholders, including health and industry organizations.

IF PRESSED ON REVISION OF CANADA’S FOOD GUIDE…
• The new food guide was released in January 2019.
• Canada’s Food Guide is based on a rigorous scientific process using the best available evidence and extensive consultation.
• The food guide is a mobile-friendly web application that provides Canadians with easier access to information about healthy eating. It provides advice on what to eat and recognizes that healthy eating is more than food choices, by encouraging healthy eating habits.
• Health Canada continues to develop new resources for various audiences to increase reach and use of the food guide.

IF PRESSED ON SODIUM REDUCTION…
• Most Canadians still consume too much sodium, which can lead to high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
• Our Government is committed to protecting the health of Canadians and to ongoing work with food industry to further reduce sodium in processed foods, the main source of sodium in the diet.
• Our Government released revised voluntary sodium reduction targets in December 2020. The goal of these targets is for the food industry to further reduce the sodium levels in processed foods by 2025.

IF PRESSED ON ELIMINATING INDUSTRIALLY PRODUCED TRANS FAT IN THE FOOD SUPPLY…
• Since September 2020 foods sold in Canada are not permitted to contain partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs).
• The elimination of PHOs will effectively reduce trans fats in the food supply since PHOs were the major source of trans fat in the Canadian diet.
• The PHO ban will help achieve the public health objective of reducing total trans fat intake by the great majority of Canadians to less than 1% of total energy intake, as recommended by the World Health Organization. Achieving this public health objective is expected to further reduce the risk of coronary heart disease among the general population.

IF PRESSED ON EVIDENCE…
• Health Canada follows a rigorous scientific process in reviewing pertinent evidence when developing policies related to the Healthy Eating Strategy.
• Health Canada focuses on the strongest evidence, where there is a well-established evidence base on public health need, and where the evidence is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

IF PRESSED ON OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY AND CONSULTATIONS…
• Health Canada remains committed to openness, transparency and meaningful engagement with the public and stakeholders on healthy eating initiatives.
• Health Canada has conducted public consultations on the revision of the Food Guide, FOP nutrition labelling, sodium in processed foods, and restrictions on advertising of certain foods to children.
• All stakeholders, including industry and health organizations, will continue to be invited to submit comments on Healthy Eating.

Health Portfolio Initiatives

Unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, which are becoming more and more common in Canada. This places a significant burden on the health of Canadians and our healthcare system. Evidence shows that many factors in our food environment influence our ability to make healthy food choices and to follow a healthy eating pattern. An increasing number of foods high in calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugars are readily offered in multiple settings. There is also a constant flow of changing and often conflicting messages creating confusion about what to eat. Elements of the healthy eating initiatives include:
• Improving nutrition information and literacy by revising Canada’s Food Guide, and the nutrition information on food labels by updating the Nutrition Facts table and list of ingredients and introducing FOP nutrition labelling.
• Facilitating healthier food options by reducing sodium in processed foods and eliminating industrially produced trans fats in the food supply.
• Protecting and supporting marginalized and vulnerable populations by restricting the advertising of certain foods to children.

Improve nutrition information and literacy

Canada’s food guide
• Canada’s new food guide, released in January 2019, is a mobile-friendly web application that provides Canadians with easier access to dietary guidance.
• The goal of the revision was to strengthen healthy eating recommendations and communicate guidance in ways that better meet the needs of different users, such as the public, policy makers and health professionals.
• Canada’s Food Guide is based on a rigorous scientific process using the best available evidence and extensive consultation.
• The food guide takes a less prescriptive approach to communicating healthy eating guidance to Canadians. Canada’s Dietary Guidelines for health professionals and policy makers set out Health Canada’s guidelines and considerations on healthy eating. The food guide snapshot provides a summary of the dietary guidelines and healthy eating recommendations, and is available in 31 languages, including nine Indigenous languages, making it more accessible for Canadians.
• New resources and tools will be developed on an ongoing basis to help Canadians apply Canada’s new food guide where they live, learn, work and play. This includes expanding the reach of the food guide to children and youth, developing additional resources for health professionals and policy makers, supporting publicly funded institutions to adapt their food environments to align with the food guide, and leveraging existing partnerships with PTs and stakeholders.
• Health Canada continues to work and consult with interested parties and the public to make sure that new guidance and resources are relevant and useful. This includes integrating a diversity and inclusion lens into food guide content and supporting the development of healthy eating tools for Indigenous Peoples.

Improve the Nutrition Facts table and list of ingredients
• In December 2016, Health Canada published final amendments to the Food and Drug Regulations on nutrition labelling and food colours, to make the Nutrition Facts table (NFt) and list of ingredients (LOI) on packaged foods easier for Canadians to use and understand. Key changes include: regulating serving sizes to make it easier to compare similar products, providing more information on sugars in the NFt and the LOI and requiring that all food colours be declared by their common name.
• The transition period for these changes ended on December 14, 2021. However, in response to industry feedback related to challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, flexibility will be provided to support the food industry. For the first year (until December 14, 2022), the CFIA will focus its efforts on education and compliance promotion.
• As of December 15, 2022, regulated parties must be compliant with the new regulations. CFIA will verify compliance and apply enforcement discretion in cases where non-compliant companies have detailed plans showing how they intend to meet the new requirements at the earliest possible time.

Front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labelling
• Since fall 2016, Health Canada consulted extensively and meaningfully on the FOP nutrition labelling proposal. In February 2018, Health Canada published proposed regulations for mandatory FOP nutrition labelling on foods that are high in sodium, sugars, or saturated fat in Canada Gazette, Part I. The final FOP nutrition labelling regulations take into account the feedback received but the publication in the Canada Gazette, Part II, was delayed due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.
• Evidence shows that obesity and its related health conditions place individuals at increased risk of COVID-19 severity and mortality.
• The FOP symbol will complement other nutrition information on the label and will help a wider range of consumers, particularly those vulnerable to poor health outcomes, interpret nutrition information and make healthier choices.
• Data from countries having implemented mandatory “high in” FOP labelling (e.g. Chile, Israel) shows that it has resulted in consumers making healthier food purchasing choices.
• As reaffirmed in the December 2021 Minister of Health’s mandate letter, Health Canada remains committed to finalizing FOP labelling regulations to promote healthy food choices.

Facilitate healthier food options

Reduce sodium in processed foods
• Efforts to reduce sodium have been ongoing. In 2012, Health Canada established voluntary sodium reduction targets for processed foods and encouraged the food industry to achieve these targets by the end of 2016.
• In 2018, Health Canada released a progress report that showed that Canadians daily sodium intake was reduced from 3400 to 2760 mg which remain above the goal of 2300 mg per day.
• In December 2020, Health Canada released revised voluntary sodium targets for processed foods to encourage the food industry to further reduce sodium in foods by 2025.
• Continued efforts are needed for Health Canada to meet the WHO target of achieving a 30% relative reduction in mean population intake of sodium by 2025. To do so, the current voluntary targets for processed foods in Canada should be complemented by implementing FOP nutrition labelling.

Eliminating industrially produced trans fats in the food supply
• Health Canada has pursued a multi-faceted approach to help reduce the trans fat intakes of Canadians, resulting in a significant reduction in Canadians’ intake of trans fat and the availability of foods high in trans fat on the Canadian marketplace.
• Following extensive consultations in fall 2016 and spring 2017, Health Canada prohibited the use of partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), the main source of industrial trans fat, in Canada. The prohibition took effect on September 17, 2018 with the addition of PHOs to the List of contaminants and other adulterating substances in foods. The prohibition included a two year phase-in period; therefore, as of September 2020 no foods sold in Canada are permitted to contain PHO.
• Health Canada’s prohibition is consistent with global efforts to eliminate industrially produced trans fat in foods. It will help achieve the public health objective of reducing total trans fat intake by the great majority of Canadians to less than 1% of total energy intake, as recommended by the World Health Organization.

Protect and support marginalized and vulnerable populations

Restrict the advertising of certain foods to children
• The government committed to this file in previous mandate letters as well as in 2021.
• In 2016, Bill S-228 was introduced in the Senate to prohibit advertising of certain foods to children but did not receive Royal Assent.
• Between 2016 and 2019, Health Canada engaged extensively on a policy proposal to comprehensively restrict advertising to children of foods that contribute to excess intakes of sodium, sugars and saturated fat.
• In June 2021, a cohort of industry stakeholders publicly announced a new self-regulatory Code governing food advertising to children, to be implemented by 2023.
• In February 2022, Ms. Patricia Lattanzio, M.P. (Liberal) introduced a Private Member’s Bill (Bill C-252 – Child Health Protection Act) to prohibit food and beverage marketing directed at children. On May 6, 2022, it was debated at second reading. Health Canada is actively reviewing the content of the bill to determine the ways in which it would offer protection and preparing a government response.

KEY FACTS
• Obesity and diet-related chronic diseases are critical issues for Canadians and the Canadian health care system, and we know now that they increase the risk of COVID-19 severity and mortality.
• Since 2016, our Government has taken a number of steps to help make it easier to choose heathier foods.
• The food guide is a mobile-friendly web application that provides Canadians with easier access to information about healthy eating. It provides advice on what to eat and recognizes that healthy eating is more than food choices, by encouraging healthy eating habits.
• Health Canada has continued to advance work on front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling and restricting food advertising to children.