Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Could Health Canada's Future Front-of-Package Stoplights Reform Deceptive Claims?

So on Monday I blogged about how there are plenty of foods of dubious nutritional quality with fronts-of-package claims that while legal, are deceptive.

Looking ahead, there is the chance that Health Canada will be implementing a national front-of-package food labeling program which in turn would highlight products' higher than desired nutrient contents (perhaps by way of stoplights for instance).

So here's my straightforward suggestion.

Regardless of the system implemented, if a product's ingredients score it a front-of-package warning from Health Canada, that product's packaging should be legally prohibited from including any front-of-package health claims or inferences (where inferences for example would be a package of Froot Loops shouting out to its inclusion of whole grains or Vitamin D, but without an actual functional health claim).

Though imperfect, this simple step might help tilt the playing field ever so slightly away from the food industry's current unfair advantage.