Decrypting the Label

While I was at save on foods looking at the all the food labels, I noticed a few patterns. Most of the time, if a company could decrease their serving size, they would. For example, a lot of the sugary cereal portion sizes were quite small. This would make their cereal look like it had fewer grams of sugar if the consumer failed to observe the serving size. For most products that aren’t sold as “single items” eg. Chips, chicken wings ect. They would manipulate their serving size to make the calories around 200-350 whereas products like burger patties, had to be straight up about their caloric values. So I would suggest being intentional about looking at the serving sizes on food labels.

I would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about food labels and dietary restrictions. However, I did learn 5 things while I went through the interactive Understanding a Food Label activity.

1. Nutrition facts labels are not required on alcoholic beverages

2. Ingredients in the ingredients list are ordered based on their mass not by their volume

3. Best before dates are required if that date is within 90 days

4. Negative claims about composition are not permitted

a. While this may sound complicated, the idea is that companies are essentially not allowed to say on their label that they followed a specific law/requirement. This can make it seem like their competitors did not. (eg. A hotdog company is not allowed to claim that they did not use artificial coloring because no hotdogs in Canada are allowed to use artificial colors.)

5. A company can claim their product is “nutritious” if it has one of the thirteen nutrients

a. In my opinion that is too weak of a criterion – I would suggest actually reading the label when that phrase is present to see if it is really up to your “nutritious” standard

As I was reading through the fact sheets it seemed like there was a consistency between them. The CIFA is the one that enforces the laws that the government puts into place and they seek to correct issues that they find. They are also responsible for food recalls if something is wrong (foods containing allergens or bacteria) and creating/implanting tests to ensure that food that has been irradiated, has been done within the bounds of the food and drugs act. Health Canada and sections of government are typicaly responsible for making the rules that the CIFA enforces. For example, they created the national standard for genetically engineered food. They ensured that the labels are easy to understand, and they standardized the phrases for those foods containing and not containing genetically engineered foods.

Knowing what we eat is very important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We have to take that responsibility into our own hands and do what we can to achieve it. It is important to be food label literate and be able to identify and decipher key aspects of the labels as well as accompanying symbols or phrases. The only reason we can trust what we read on these labels is because we have groups and departments within our government that are responsible for upholding laws that keep food producers at least somewhat honest and transparent.