A logo for products that are unhealthy

Marie-Eve Dumont

Friday, 9 February 2018 21:49

UPDATE
Friday, 9 February 2018 21:49

Look at this article

The products that are too sweet, salty or fatty will soon have a logo on the front of their packaging to warn consumers.

Screenshots taken from the Health Canada website

Canadians will have to choose on the Health Canada internet site among these four logos which indicate that the product has a high content of sugar, salt or saturated fat.

The symbol will be affixed on products which have a content of “high” in sugar, sodium, or saturated fat, or 15 % or more of the daily value.

Certain foods such as 2% milk, fruit and vegetables packed without added sugar, and vegetable oils such as canola or olive oil will not be covered.

Canadians are invited to choose one of four logos to determine which one should be on the products. The consultation will end at the end of April, on the website of Health Canada.

The Coalition’s weight is believed that this measure would force the industry to reconsider the formulation of its products in order to avoid having to put the logo and and offer healthier products.

26 billion $

This measure will also allow consumers to make better choices, especially with food everyday such as cereal, granola bars or snacks for children, ” says Corinne Voyer, spokesperson of the Coalition weight.

“There are a lot of products that have the industry we dangled that they have attributes health while, in reality, they are full of sugar, salt and fat, which induces the consumer in error. The logo will therefore correctly place the product and undo this “halo health” misleading “, insists Ms. Voyer.

It must be said that the annual expenditure of the diet-related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and even certain cancers such as colon, stomach or kidneys, amounted to 26 billion dollars in the country, according to the heart and stroke Foundation and the STROKE.

“There is a crisis of obesity, we see in the youth of the diseases like diabetes that we never saw before in people of a certain age “, is worried about Kevin Bilodeau, the director of government relations at the Québec Foundation.

This new measure will come into force in December 2018, and the industry will have three years to comply.