:
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Joy Smith, your chair, and I welcome you today. We're going to be examining, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the study on healthy living.
Some familiar faces are in front of us today. It's really good to see you.
We have, from the Public Health Agency, Kim Elmslie, director general, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch. We have Nabanita Giri, the executive director, joining her as well. Welcome.
From the Department of Health we have Dr. Samuel Godefroy, director general, from the Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch. Welcome back, Mr. Godfrey. We also have Dr. Hasan Hutchinson, director general, Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Welcome as well. Joining them is Dr. William Yan, acting director, Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate.
I am going to begin with the Public Health Agency of Canada, with Kim Elmslie. You have a ten-minute presentation, Ms. Elmslie.
:
Madam Chair, honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to frame today's discussion on healthy eating and next week's discussion on physical activity.
I am going to provide you with an overview of the Government of Canada's healthy living agenda. My colleagues from Health Canada, Dr. Hasan Hutchinson and Dr. Samuel Godefroy, will then speak about their important work that contributes to the healthy eating component of this agenda.
[English]
I don't have to tell anyone in this room that the burden of chronic disease is significant and growing. Chronic diseases and injuries are the main causes of death and ill health in Canada. However, we also know that a large proportion of these chronic diseases can be prevented or delayed.
The Public Health Agency of Canada works in very close collaboration with our health portfolio partners to support healthy living and to deliver on specific actions that promote healthy eating and physical activity.
The commitment to helping Canadians lead healthier lives is illustrated through the federal-provincial-territorial endorsement of the declaration on prevention and promotion in September 2010. At that time, federal, provincial, and territorial governments also launched a framework for action to promote healthy weights. This particular framework is focused on concrete action by governments in partnership with other sectors to address the childhood obesity epidemic.
The declaration outlines principles to guide efforts to ensure Canadians have access to health promotion and disease prevention services. Among these principles, the recognition of prevention as the hallmark of a quality health system along with the importance of implementing various approaches to address public health issues and work across sectors are prominent.
The integrated pan-Canadian healthy living strategy is a mechanism by which federal, provincial, and territorial governments work together on these priorities.
You will hear today a consistent theme as we describe the work that's under way, and that's the theme of partnership. I'm talking about partnership with our federal, provincial, and territorial partners through the declaration and through the framework to combat childhood obesity as well as partnerships with other sectors, including the business community, including the education sector, and including communities, all of which have fundamental roles to play, enabled by governments, to provide Canadians with the opportunity for healthy living.
Rates of unhealthy weights among children have risen steadily in recent decades. Today more than one in four children in Canada are overweight or obese.
Reducing obesity levels and promoting healthy weights is critical to the prevention of ill health and to helping Canadians lead healthier lives.
We all know that obesity is a complex issue that requires innovative solutions from government, from industry, and from non-governmental organizations. We, like countries around the world, know that this will not be a quick fix. It will require a sustained effort.
Through the federal-provincial-territorial framework, we are working together in three specific areas: creating supportive environments for children for physical activity and healthy eating; identifying and intervening early for children who are at higher risk; and increasing the availability and accessibility of nutritious foods and decreasing the marketing to children of foods and beverages that are high in fat, sugar, and/or sodium.
These are all very large and complex areas of work, and we know that they require many sectors to come together, working together collaboratively and in a sustained way. That's why we're working with our provincial and territorial colleagues on a strategy that will engage youth, non-government partners, and business partners to identify solutions and joint actions.
We will be able to provide more details on this engagement strategy very soon, as the plan is to have it roll out in mid-February.
While we're moving ahead on a new approach to childhood obesity, we're building on a strong foundation. Let me just summarize for you the key pieces of that foundation.
There's Canada's Food Guide, well recognized as a trusted resource used by many Canadians. And we've just supported the development of new physical activity guidelines, which provide advice and recommendations to increase physical activity levels among Canadians.
We make significant investments in federal research that provides the evidence base for future programs and policies and helps us evaluate ones that are currently in play.
Our focus is on effective interventions to better support Canadians to make healthy choices that promote healthy weights. That's a very important point for us.
We're focused on ensuring that the things that are being done in the country to help Canadians eat healthy and to remain physically active are supported by evidence, so that we're investing in things that are effective for Canadians.
We support community-based action by funding programs that promote healthy lifestyles and include opportunities for parents, caregivers, and children to learn and practise healthy living skills.
As well, we're investing in important partnerships such as the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, which links organizations and communities across Canada working on cancer prevention, including childhood obesity.
The initiatives that we are partnering with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer on are allowing us to advance shared priorities in areas that are innovative and tangible--for example, improving active transportation to schools to get our children physically active, improving access to nutritious foods in northern communities in a way that's sustainable and affordable, and providing opportunities for learning from each other, sharing knowledge for improved youth health.
We are gaining momentum in this effort to reduce and prevent childhood obesity. We know that reversing the obesity trend will take time, but it can be done. That has been shown by our success in tobacco control. We know that it took 40 years of concerted efforts to get us to a place where Canada has one of the lowest smoking rates in the world.
Making healthy choices easier requires a comprehensive set of actions that address both the social and physical environments, provide consistent information, increase awareness of Canadians, as well as develop new knowledge and surveillance to underpin our work.
Madam Chair, with that introduction, I'm now going to turn to my colleagues from Health Canada, who will describe in more specific detail the work they are doing to advance healthy eating.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I am pleased to be here today with my colleagues. Both the Food Directorate and the Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion are situated within the Health Products and Food Branch of Health Canada, and we work closely to support and promote the nutritional health and well-being of Canadians.
[English]
The office of nutrition policy and promotion is the focal point and the authoritative source for nutrition and healthy eating policy and promotion in Canada. We support the nutritional health and well-being of Canadians by collectively defining, promoting, and implementing evidence-based nutrition policies.
We know that healthy eating is a crucial contributor to overall health at every stage of development, and is equally important in reducing the risk of many chronic diseases. Food choices are complex decisions, influenced by the relation between individual and collective factors, including social and physical environments.
A population health approach, which we use as the base of everything we do, uses evidence to assess health, identify priorities, and develop strategies to improve health. For example, Canada's Food Guide was developed using the best evidence to translate the science of nutrition and health into a healthy eating pattern for Canadians. Health Canada currently distributes approximately 3.5 million printed food guides in both English and French each year. I think more than 20 million in total have been distributed since we released it in 2007.
In 2010, the food guide home page was the second-most-viewed page on the Health Canada website. It's the most popular document downloaded from the website. I think it's second only to the tax forms, I guess, in terms of what gets downloaded by Canadians. So I guess you could say we're probably the most popular, if you think of it that way.
Voices: Oh, oh!
Dr. Hasan Hutchinson: The work currently under way in our office to provide health professionals both with the latest nutrition advice related to prenatal nutrition and infant-feeding guidelines are examples of how our office uses best practices to support and promote healthy eating through the lifespan of Canadians.
We have recently revised our gestational weight gain guidelines for health professionals, and will soon be launching consumer materials to help both health professionals and expectant mothers manage weight gain during pregnancy. Reaching out to other groups, such as health professionals, researchers, policy-makers, and academics, is a way by which we aim to increase our efforts and to maximize their potential. Action to improve nutrition is a shared responsibility--picking up on what my colleague Kim Elmslie was saying--and working collaboratively with a broad range of partners and stakeholders is key to our efforts to improve the nutritional health of Canadians.
The office of nutrition policy and promotion provides leadership and coordination to the federal-provincial-territorial group on nutrition, which brings together professionals working in nutrition policy and program development in federal, provincial, and territorial governments to advance national healthy eating efforts. Through our network on healthy eating, which includes consumer groups, voluntary health organizations, industry representatives, and other non-governmental organizations, we aim to enhance collaboration, cooperation, and alignment of efforts to support healthy eating in Canada.
The office of nutrition policy and promotion has initiated and led the development of many policies and initiatives that focus on improving the nutritional health of the population. The best-known of these, of course, is Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide, which was released in 2008. It really serves as a policy document and underpins nutrition and health policies, standards, education programs, and meal planning initiatives across the country.
Other major Health Canada endeavours include the analysis and sharing of nutrition data from the Canadian community health survey; our nutrition labelling education initiatives, such as the nutrition facts education campaign; the promotion of healthy eating through, for example, the “Eat Well and Be Active” educational tool kit; and policy-related work to support broader Government of Canada initiatives, such as the healthy living strategy.
Population health interventions call for collaboration across all sectors and levels. Our most recent public education initiative, the nutrition facts education campaign, is an example of how stakeholders who share responsibility for healthy eating promotion--the food industry, health professional associations, and non-governmental organizations--can work together. This campaign is being done in collaboration with Food and Consumer Products of Canada, which is the largest industry association in Canada representing the food and consumer products industry.
The campaign aims to increase Canadians' understanding and use of the nutrition facts table to help them make informed food choices. It's a multi-faceted education campaign that uses various means to provide messages to consumers, including food packages in the retail setting, national television and print advertising, the Health Canada website, and social media.
You may have seen some of the TV commercials that are running right now, and that will be running for the next couple of months. The print ads have been going for a couple of months now.
Switching over to the provinces and territories, we are talking with the provinces and territories about the possibility of creating consistent school food guidelines across Canada. Working with our provincial-territorial colleagues and the Public Health Agency of Canada, we've released a literature review that outlines the current state of cooking and food preparation skills and the implications on nutrition health.
This release was also accompanied by a case study that profiles 13 Canadian and two international programs aimed at improving cooking and food preparation skills among children and families. It's a guide for individuals and organizations to develop cooking and food-skill programs in their own communities.
The Eat Well and Be Active educational toolkit developed with our colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Canada is another example of our collaborative efforts. The toolkit includes the “Eat Well and be Active Every Day” education poster, resources, and downloadable activity plans, and it's intended for use by health educators to increase Canadians' knowledge about healthy eating and physical activity and encourage them to take actions to maintain and improve their health.
As Kim Elmslie has already talked about, in September the FPT Ministers of Health endorsed the framework document entitled “Curbing Childhood Obesity: A Federal, Provincial and Territorial Framework for Action to Promote Healthy Weights”. One of the key policy priorities of this framework is increasing the availability and accessibility of nutritious foods.
I'm chairing right now an FPT task team that has been created to recommend concrete actions to increase access and availability of nutritious foods--
:
Okay. So there are parameters around this so you won't get cut off.
I am chairing, as I mentioned, the FPT task group that's been created to recommend concrete actions to increase access and availability of nutritious foods, with the focus on remote and northern areas of Canada.
[Translation]
Another key policy priority that is contained in the Curbing Childhood Obesity framework is focused on decreasing children's exposure to the marketing of food and beverages high in fat, sugar and sodium.
A task team has also been created for this policy priority, and Health Canada is working in close collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop concrete actions that can be taken to address this issue.
[English]
All the projects that I've mentioned today have identified outcomes that we believe have and will have an impact on the health of Canadians.
Let me conclude by stating that healthy eating not only plays a role in the prevention and control of chronic diseases, but it is also a key determinant of human health and development throughout life.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Bonjour, mesdames et messieurs.
Honourable members, I'd like to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to appear before you today and to speak with you about some of the activities that Health Canada has undertaken to help Canadians make healthier food choices and therefore also have a healthier lifestyle.
As my colleagues Drs. Hutchinson and Elmslie have indicated, we work very closely together to support the nutritional health and well-being of Canadians. Specifically, the food directorate in Health Canada sets the standards for the safety and nutritional quality of all foods available for sale in Canada. Therefore, when it is determined that there is any hazard or risk associated with our food supply, it is our responsibility as regulators to determine how best to eliminate, reduce, or manage that risk.
For instance, there has been a growing recognition that Canadians are consuming more sodium than they need to maintain good health. As a result, our directorate in Health Canada is currently implementing the recommendations of the sodium reduction strategy that are specific to its mandate as a food regulator. We are already pursuing a number of regulatory approaches that support some of the sodium reduction initiatives outlined in the strategy, including the necessary updates to the nutrition labelling regulations and the streamlining of approvals for food additives that can successfully replace sodium in food products, specifically in processed foods.
[Translation]
With regard to enabling new food products and innovative healthy food alternatives, Health Canada's Food Directorate is also responsible for the assessment and authorization of new and novel products, which, in some cases, can provide additional nutritional benefits for consumers.
For example, our experts and scientists have assessed foods with improved properties, such as the enhancement of lutein in egg products, and have allowed the marketing of those foods. Lutein, by the way, is an antioxidant that helps to prevent macular degeneration.
[English]
As a food safety and nutrition regulator, our role is to assess and where possible enable safe and nutritious novel products such as these, which can further assist Canadians by providing them with more healthful food choices.
Another area of our work is to ensure that the information related to foods, either on the label or used for advertising purposes, is scientifically substantiated and provides consumers with the knowledge base needed to make informed decisions and choices.
Canada was in fact the first country in the world to have mandatory requirements of nutrition labelling on our food products. These regulations came into full effect in December 2007, and require that calories and the content of 13 core nutrients be listed on most pre-packed foods in a standardized format.
It is this type of information, combined with education programs such as the recently launched campaign mentioned by Dr. Hutchinson, that offers an opportunity to improve the nutritional health and well-being of Canadians by providing them the information they need to make those food choices.
Health Canada continues to monitor the effectiveness of these labelling requirements, particularly those that pertain to health and safety, and which are under the department oversight to ensure that they are achieving their objectives, and particularly their public health objectives.
As mentioned earlier, Health Canada is currently evaluating the nutrition labelling regulations as well as its regulatory oversight of health claims.
[Translation]
Following public consultation in early 2008, a five-year action plan was developed to modernize how health claims on foods are managed. The objectives of the plan are to allow greater flexibility for highlighting the health benefits of food products, and to improve the efficiency and transparency of premarket review and regulatory processes for health claims.
Another objective of the plan is to increase industry's capacity to make function claims, with the most important and ultimate goal being to enhance consumer confidence in how health claims are used and regulated.
[English]
A modernized process to manage the approval of disease risk reduction and therapeutic health claims is also being explored. The process emphasizes the need to have a thorough safety assessment and confirmation of the scientific underpinning and substantiation of the claim before enabling its use.
We have also updated guidance that is to be provided to industry as to the types of studies that will be required and the quality of the data that will need to be achieved before making a submission to Health Canada for our scientists to evaluate these submissions.
I do hope that I have highlighted some of the initiatives that Health Canada is pursuing to support Canadians in making their food choices in a way that will contribute to the overall healthier lifestyle.
We are all committed to continuing our work to enhance not only the safety of our food supply but also consumers' understanding of how the choices they make can actually positively impact their health and well-being.
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to appear before you.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the officials, and happy new year, everybody.
Thank you for the information. You said your focus is on the nutritional health and well-being of Canadians, so I'm going to talk about an issue that's near and dear to me, and that's breakfast programs.
If we look at the research, we know that school breakfast programs are highly effective in providing children with more nutritious diets and better cognitive abilities. They're more alert, they pay attention, they do better on standardized tests. They have a stronger basis to learn in school, with better cooperation, discipline, and interpersonal behaviours. You also see an improvement in emotional and physical health, and less sick days.
Dr. Butler-Jones, in his 2008 report, observed the following:
When children go to school hungry or poorly nourished, their energy levels, memory, problem-solving skills, creativity, concentration and behaviour are all negatively impacted. Studies have shown that 31% of elementary students and 62% of secondary school students do not eat a nutritious breakfast before school.... As a result of being hungry at school, these children may not reach their full developmental potential--an outcome that can have a health impact throughout their entire lives.
I'm a former vice-chair of the breakfast programs in Toronto. We fed 110,000 children every morning.
One in four go to school hungry, and hungry children cannot learn. Is there a plan to develop a national breakfast program? We're one of the only industrialized countries without them.
Thank you very much for the question. It's a really important issue that you've highlighted.
I'd like to start by indicating that under the community action program for children that the Public Health Agency of Canada administers, there are currently over 440 organizations across Canada receiving funding. That funding is provided to support food security for vulnerable populations, to help people develop the tools they need to eat healthy, and to teach them and train them on how to cook nutritious foods. So there are programs like that in place.
As we move forward, I'd like to bring us back to the work that was initiated last fall under the auspices of the federal-provincial-territorial declaration on prevention and promotion, and specifically the work to combat childhood obesity. In that context, one of the priorities is looking at the ways that we as a country can move forward to provide access to healthy and nutritious foods for Canadians.
That of course includes looking at the settings in which those foods can be provided, and the ways that we as a federal government can enable those working in provinces and territories--
As a regulatory agency, indeed a public health agency, our goal is not to be happy with what we have accomplished and call it a day. We know we need to do more. We need to consider every possible way of doing more. And that involves a number of steps. We need to begin by consolidating successful initiatives for prepackaged foods, and making sure that no ground has been lost and that solutions are available to food processors. They need oilseed plants and oils that can replace trans fats.
We also need to do more when it comes to the food service sector. That is one of the findings that has emerged from the monitoring program. The food service sector has not been as successful in this area, and we are in the process of examining why that is. One of the reasons that is coming to light is, once again, the content in oilseed plants. We need to look at trans fat replacement solutions.
We are already seeing positive results in this sector. Some solid progress is being made, but it is not consistent across the board. As we speak, the department is completing its analysis of the monitoring program results. We are at the risk analysis phase, and scientific peer reviewers are in the process of validating the information. We will then look at all the necessary options that will enable us to further reduce every Canadian's trans fat intake.
:
I can try to answer that, Madam Chair. Thank you.
[Translation]
You raise a very important point. I would like to give you some background on nutrition labelling, if I may.
It did not come into full effect until 2007. Canada was the first country in the world to make nutrition labelling mandatory. You mentioned an extremely important issue, portion size. It is actually not mandatory to indicate a given portion on the label. When these regulations were being developed, Health Canada suggested standard portions for a certain number of prepackaged products. Those portions appear in one of the schedules of the Regulations Respecting Food and Drugs. So there are guidelines provided to help food processors determine portion size and, specifically, create corresponding nutrition labels.
We are starting to see disparities in the use of these portions on a number of levels. In some cases, it has to do with product diversity. In other cases, the disparity, as you said, is due to the fact that the portion does not represent the quantity likely to be consumed by the average Canadian, if I can use that term.
:
First, with respect to the first nations and Inuit health branch, that's a different part of Health Canada. It's not my responsibility, or Sammy's responsibility, so we will have to take that question back for a bit more detail. As Sammy mentioned earlier, we will come back with those sorts of things.
That said, certainly the first nations and Inuit health branch is part of Nutrition North Canada, and that program will be starting May 1, I believe. It's sort of the reformulation of the food mail program, with Indian and Northern Affairs as well. That is certainly a main component that will be going forward in the north.
The other side, of course, is what Kim Elmslie was talking about earlier. As part of the curbing childhood obesity program, we do have a task group on food availability and access. There is a particular focus there on northern and remote regions as well. It's a group that I'm chairing. We're actually looking at programs that are in place in the different provinces and territories, and run by the feds as well, to look at where there are possibilities for collaboration and sharing of best practices as well.
Again, we're early days in that. We just had our second meeting this week, actually, but we will be having recommendations for movement on accessibility in the north.
The strategy, as it was published, recommended the reduction of sodium intake for Canadians and has set a milestone for that reduction. It is an ambitious milestone to get Canadians' intake of sodium to less than 2,300 milligrams per day by 2016. The strategy essentially made recommendations on a number of initiatives to get us there.
One of the recommendations that is under federal oversight is to support our food supply in moving toward sodium reduction--essentially enabling the availability of products with lower sodium levels. Health Canada has invested a lot of effort in doing that by developing very aggressive targets for the reduction of sodium that will have to be achieved for the food supply.
While we are taking on that objective, we have to be very cognizant of the role of sodium in processed foods. We have to make sure we do not compromise food safety in the context of sodium reduction. But we still must make sure we achieve that objective.
One of the milestones I'm happy to report to the committee is that Health Canada published the proposed sodium reduction targets on January 7 for another period of consultation with industry, with the hope that these final targets will be considered as the 2011 targets in March 2011. So there is quite a bit of work under way in that regard.
:
The nutrition facts education campaign I talked about earlier specifically addresses recommendation 2.6 of the sodium working group. It is about ensuring that Canadians are able to understand the nutrition facts table so they can make better choices about the sodium in those foods.
The Public Health Agency and ourselves are putting together a fairly comprehensive plan on awareness and education to attack those recommendations.
On the research side, CIHR, working with NSERC, has already made some initial steps with respect to making moneys available to have progress with respect to the research so they can really work on the gaps of knowledge we need, in terms of understanding how we as individuals process the taste so we can more quickly reformulate the foods.
On the monitoring and evaluation side, we have been hosting, with the World Health Organization, work to put together a framework for monitoring and evaluation. We had a WHO meeting in October that was hosted by Canada. There is work ongoing there at that level on monitoring and evaluation.
As well as the federal work that's going on, we have an FPT task group on sodium that is being led by both Health Canada and B.C. out of the Public Health Network. So we have a more coordinated approach across all the different levels of government in Canada to have work plans that take in not just the feds but the responsibilities of the provinces and territories on how we're going to work cooperatively to get toward the goal of 2,300 milligrams per day, on average, by 2016.
:
Thank you for the question.
These regulations are clearly intended to make sure that Canadians with food allergies or gluten intolerances can limit the risk of inadvertently consuming a food product--particularly a pre-packaged food--with the culprit ingredient to which they are allergic or intolerant not being declared.
We currently have mandatory requirements for ingredient labelling, but there are some areas where these requirements may lead to omitting the declaration of an allergen or a gluten source. So those regulations are clearly meant to stop those instances from happening.
For example, when you have a spice mixture there is no requirement right now to have the composition of the spices declared. While we're not changing that, the requirement will make sure that if there is an allergenic substance in that mixture, only that substance will have to be declared. It cannot be omitted.
There is another objective being pursued. Food-allergic consumers, their caregivers, and their families do not shop with a dictionary. So we're trying to make sure the information is easily accessible to consumers and there are simple words that have to be recognized in considering whether or not to buy or consume that product. So terminology like “beta-lactoglobulin” for milk will have to be accompanied in a mandatory fashion with the word “milk”.
So those are some of the elements being pursued through these allergen labelling regulations.
:
Thank you for the question.
I wouldn't actually qualify it as a delay. These regulations are very complex regulations. I don't know if any of you have had a chance to look at division I of part B of the food and drug regulations. It is one of the most complex, I would say, and probably one of the oldest, pieces of regulation we have. Our regulations date back to the 1960s.
Needless to say, those amendments have a number of implications that needed to be addressed. As I mentioned, we went through a very thorough consultation process, and we have accounted for the comments we have received. We had to. In fact, that clearly added to the timelines between publication in the Canada Gazette part I to publication in Canada Gazette part II.
The commitment, however, is actually there. It has been reiterated in a number of instances by Health Canada, by our minister. And as I mentioned, it is a Government of Canada commitment as part of the food and consumer safety action plan. These regulations will be finalized and will be published in their final form.
I would like to mention that for celiac disease, specifically, and gluten sources, the Canadian allergen labelling regulations are actually unique. We are, in fact, the first jurisdiction in the world to mandate the declaration of sources of gluten for pre-packaged foods in order to enable celiac individuals and wheat-allergic consumers to not only protect themselves but to increase their choices. This is another element we are pursuing through these regulations.
:
Thanks very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you for appearing before us again. It's great to see everyone once again.
I want to come back to the labelling issue. It's the one thing that I hear consistently from constituents, the misunderstanding of labelling or the inability to understand the labelling. I know that we were the first country to have the mandatory requirements, and it was only in the end of 2007.
But one of the biggest problems that is relayed to me is the fact that there is no standardization of the serving size. I'm always asked who determines what the serving size should be. I had somebody come to me the other day who had two packages of cookies. They were reading them and they were saying, “Oh, this one is better than this one.” Once you read the labels closely, one was for seven cookies and one was for three. So it totally reversed the expectation of which one was better and which one was worse.
Who determines the serving size? And if Health Canada did some standardized ones, why are they being changed so drastically? These were not drastically different cookies; they were all supposed to be low-sugar cookies. They were supposed to be what the constituent determined to be a healthier choice.
So that's one question. What do you have in the works to further improve the food labelling process, if anything?
:
Thank you for the question.
You're definitely raising an issue that we have with our nutrition labelling regulations. As you've mentioned, we're the first country in the world to have these regulations on a mandatory basis, to have a nutrition facts table. Therefore I would say that we don't have many other countries to learn from. Essentially we are learning, of course, from some of the issues pertaining to the implementation of these regulations.
We do have guidance. In fact there is a schedule in the food and drug regulations called schedule M, where guidance on the use of serving sizes is provided. Now, we realize that this guidance is not necessarily followed by everyone.
Initially the intent was really to leave some flexibility in that regard for different reasons, first of all because there wasn't necessarily a clear understanding of what the consumer might think or might seek in terms of the portion size. Should it be on the basis--I'm going to take the example of the cookie that you've highlighted--of 100 grams, because essentially you may have a light cookie and a heavier cookie? So should it be standardized as an amount, so that people can compare on the basis of 100 grams? Should it be on the basis of a cookie?
So essentially it's the unit of consumption, knowing that in some instances some consumers actually do not stop at one cookie. What is the actual portion of cookie consumption for Canadians? It was one of the reasons this area was left...supported by guidance but not necessarily made in a mandatory fashion.
We have acknowledged in the context of the life of the regulation that this area needs to be addressed. In fact, it's one of the first priorities for updates of the nutrition facts table, to look at ways in which we could further standardize that serving size specifically. We consider that actually it's a critical piece right now, particularly to make comparisons.
We would like to avoid situations where you have one food processor that made the effort to reduce sodium, for example, and we would be able to read the sodium content on the basis of a particular serving size. Then you have another instance when the other processor has simply changed the portion size and it would appear that the level of sodium is actually lower.
We have already identified that as an issue, and we have already started with some, I would say, voluntary measures. I have written a number of letters to the food processing industry advising them of this issue and asking them for their collaboration in that regard.
But we're not stopping there. We are actually undertaking a number of initiatives, consumer research being one of them. We are also consulting with the food industry and the processing industry, specifically to look at ways in which we can address this issue of serving size.
:
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I will ask you my two questions, and then you can have the remaining time to answer.
Dr. Godefroy, in your opening remarks, you said that “Health Canada is already pursuing regulatory approaches that support some of the sodium reduction initiatives outlined in the strategy, including the necessary updates to the nutrition labelling regulations [...]”.
I would like to know what those approaches are and whether they are based on the interim goal of 2,300 milligrams or the ultimate goal of 1,500 milligrams per day.
My second question is about energy drinks. I know that, a few months ago, Health Canada indicated that a series of analyses were under way, with a possible view to tightening up the regulatory framework for these types of drinks, which would allow for better oversight. There was even talk of specific legislation. I am wondering whether we will be seeing anything tangible in the near future.
In response to your first question, there are indeed a certain number of tangible steps aimed at updating the nutrition facts table. They will be carried out in conjunction with the sodium reduction strategy. First of all, when you look at the table, you probably notice the percentage of the daily value information. For sodium, that value is currently based on a required daily intake of 2,400 milligrams. We are going to revise that value. Of course, we will start by reviewing the scientific basis for that revision and ensure that the calculation is based on an updated value.That is a first and very tangible step.
The second and equally tangible measure affecting the nutrition facts table has to do with portions. The department is not ruling out the possibility of using a regulatory instrument to better control the use of portions, especially as it relates to sodium content indications. There will be a certain number of options. We will undertake serious discussions with food processing stakeholders. Some consultations have already been scheduled for this spring. They will actually be a continuation of previous discussions.
We will also pursue other regulatory measures in connection with the sodium reduction strategy. They will involve the approval of food additives. When you reduce the sodium content in certain processed products, you need to use an additive to ensure those products remain safe and do not pose a public health risk. Sorbic acid is one such food additive. We will need to determine whether we are going to broaden the use of sorbic acid or increase approved quantities, obviously while maintaining food safety. That will help to bring about reduced sodium levels in a number of processed foods.
As far as energy drinks go, they are currently subject to the Natural Health Products Regulations. So they are not within my area of responsibility. I will make a note of the question and ask the committee whether an update can be provided at a later date.
:
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I want to say that you've been doing good work, and I'm very excited by what's been going on so far, but there are a couple of things I want to ask.
You've talked in your report about decreasing children's exposure to the marketing of food and beverages that are high in fat, sugar, and sodium. I know that educational programs can do that, and labelling can, and so on. But what about advertising on Saturday mornings, when kids are watching TV, and they're watching cartoons and there's all this food advertised that's bad for them? Are you doing anything about the advertising? That's been a major issue. That's the first question.
Second, you've talked about increasing the availability and accessibility of nutritious foods. Increasing availability and accessibility is great, but under accessibility, we know that the most obese kids come from low-income families. What are we doing about helping to make nutritious foods more available to poor families in terms of cost? We saw what Obama's wife did when she was working with Walmart to talk about how they were going to make good food cheaper than bad food. That's one question I wondered if you'd consider.
Finally, I wanted to ask you a question about additives. You talked about adding good things. But take, for instance, vitamin D. Everyone knows that it's the magic vitamin, and everyone's busy eating tons of vitamin D, but we also have vitamin D added to various foodstuffs. Has any consideration been given to asking if we're going to be overdosing a bunch of people on stuff? Because everyone is trying to take the good stuff, and it's added to so many products. Who is checklisting that? How is someone going to be able to tell somebody to remember that they're getting it in additives in food? That, to me, is an important thing.
I had another question to ask, but I'll stick to those three at the moment.
:
I'll start, Madam Chair, with your permission.
Let's start with the question on marketing and advertising to children. Dr. Fry, we are seized with this question as well. Health ministers, last fall, in their endorsement and launching of the framework for action to combat childhood obesity, have put a priority on investigating measures we can use as federal, provincial, and territorial governments, working with the business sector and working with the NGO sector, to find ways to reduce the impact of marketing on children.
You may also know that in May 2010, Canada was one of the member states that endorsed the WHO recommendations on the marketing of food and beverages to children. So we are aligned with and working with our international colleagues, as well.
This is a very important issue, and we are committed, as the health ministers across the country are, to looking at ways we can effectively deal with that issue.
So thank you for that. That was a really important question.
:
Thank you very much for the question.
Certainly as we're moving forward and have put a priority on childhood obesity, we're looking at all measures, screen time being one of them--the time kids are spending in front of computers, in front of the television, playing video games. Those are a concern for all of us. We are looking carefully, both internationally and within Canada, at what are the best practices, at what are the ways we can support parents, support kids in schools, support communities in finding ways to get kids moving.
Also, it's from the perspective of avoiding the impacts of marketing and advertising to kids. If they're not watching so much TV, they're not getting bombarded with those advertisements either.
So there are lot of benefits to that approach, going forward.
I will come back to the question of the federal-provincial-territorial work around childhood obesity. This is, from our perspective, very groundbreaking and very exciting. We have all the health ministers across the country lined up together. They've recognized the problem of childhood obesity and they've said they're going to work together. But not only that, they're going to champion this, because they're going to reach out to other sectors, as health ministers, and ask, how can you be a part of the solution?
This is not about saying government is going to do everything. This is about government being the enabler. Through the process of engagement that will be launched in the next few weeks, we're specifically going to go to youth, who have the best ideas about what can be done to help them be champions within their own schools, within their own communities, and within their own families for moving forward on childhood obesity.
This is about starting a national dialogue with Canadians, and it's about having Canadians be the innovators, as we know we can be, and the finders of those solutions. We're in a really exciting time in this country around the prevention of chronic disease, and clearly childhood obesity is where we need to start. We want those early behaviours to be the best behaviours. We don't want to have to change behaviours when they're teenagers; we want them to carry those behaviours through their teens and into adulthood.
The framework I talked about in my introduction and the work of FPT governments is the way the federal government is exercising its leadership role in its jurisdictional mandate.
With the committee's permission, can I ask a question? Is that okay? I try not to do that.
In the schools it's amazing that we're in a day and age right now when we're actually looking at all these obese young people, and there are reasons for it. The social networking, the computers, that's a lot of it. You were talking about having the kids make some of these decisions and interact, but I'm wondering--and I know schools are provincial jurisdiction--if at the federal level you have ever gone to our provincial partners and talked about making physical education.... I know that's provincial jurisdiction. I was a teacher. I'm very aware of that. But along with this packaging, I'm wondering, would it be good to have recommendations in terms of action?
Some schools I know now do not have physical education. They don't. It has been taken out of the curriculum because of the cutbacks. And I know at the federal level we hit the post-secondary education piece, but we do have the Canada food guide and we do have guidance that can be there for possible action that might be a catalyst, not to infringe on other jurisdictions but to outline the importance of this happening.
When you talk about breakfast programs, I know what that means, because I had one in one of my schools. Kids came to school hungry. So that is provincial jurisdiction, but there's still that umbrella.
I'm wondering, have we looked at something like that? I know you've done a lot of great work, and I wonder if that has been an aspect.
:
That would be someone else's mandate right here.
As you have said, schools are a very key setting to promote and support healthy eating and physical activity. That is certainly clear. And again, as you said, the responsibility for school health is really with the provinces, but that shouldn't be seen as an impediment to actually working with the provinces and territories to really move forward on this.
So what we have done certainly with respect to the school nutrition guidelines is that we've been in a process now for about a year and a half where I suppose one could say that we hold space and that sort of quiet leadership with respect to bringing together the provinces and territories to talk about school nutrition guidelines and to look for developing consistency in those guidelines from province to province. Those are, again, meetings that we have hosted, bringing together the provinces and territories, and we're working in a very collaborative way. So what we're trying to do is to improve the consistency of school food guidelines from province to province, which then makes it easier to make sure that you've got the food supply that can be used in schools and as well to enhance implementation efforts so that if there are lessons to be learned from one province to the next province, we can take those forward.
So our federal role there is really, I suppose, one could say, more of holding space, but actually to bring together the analysis of the guidelines that have been there.
The other thing that we've done with respect to school guidelines is to work with the World Health Organization, and we directly supported the development of the framework for school health. The aspect on school nutrition we supported from out of our office. The aspect on physical activity was supported from the Public Health Agency. So in some ways we were going straight up to WHO but we were reflecting the learnings and what the provinces had to offer. We worked with our federal-provincial-territorial group on nutrition to get the right types of recommendations that go into the World Health Organization.
So there are ways that we as federal government do have a responsibility in this as well. It's not that direct one; it's more through indirect means.
Ms. Elmslie, in your opening remarks you talked about decreasing marketing to children of foods and beverages high in fat and sodium, etc., and you mentioned it in the answer to your last question.
Last year I met with groups such as the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and they brought in great documentation showing that in Quebec French-speaking kids have lower obesity rates than kids in English Canada, but French-speaking kids in Quebec also have lower obesity rates than English-speaking kids in Quebec, and the links are directly about marketing to kids.
So there actually are rules in place with French media. You can't market to kids, and voila, the kids are healthier. So I'm wondering if the Public Health Agency is considering any regulations like those in Quebec, because they seem to work.