CONSUMERS

Food Guide and Labelling

Canada's Food Guide defines and promotes healthy eating for all Canadians over the age of 2. It translates the science of nutrition and health into a healthy eating pattern and emphasizes the importance of combining healthy eating and physical activity. The nutrition label found on food products is a useful tool in selecting foods for healthy eating by helping consumers to choose foods according to healthy eating messages.

• Canada’s Food Guide
• Nutrition Labelling and Claims
  • Nutrition Facts Table
  • Ingredient List
  • Sugar Claims

Canada’s Food Guide

What is the Food Guide Based on?
Canada’s Food Guide is based on nutrition and food science. A key reference is the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs). The DRIs summarize research findings about the amount of each nutrient and calories needed for good health and the prevention of chronic disease, while avoiding the negative effects of consuming too much of any individual nutrient. The Food Guide is based on a sedentary level of activity for all age/sex groups. (Sedentary activity includes typical daily living activities such as household tasks and walking to the bus.)

What are the key messages of the Food Guide?
Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide describes what amount of food people need and what type of food is part of a healthy eating pattern. The eating pattern recommends a variety of foods from the four food groups – Vegetables and Fruit, Grain Products, Milk and Alternatives, and Meat and Alternatives – plus a certain amount of added oils and fats. The recommended number of servings is an average of what people should try to eat each day and is different at different stages of life and is different for males and females. The Guide also suggests limiting foods and beverages high in calories, fat, sugar or salt (sodium) to help achieve good health and a healthy body weight. The number of calories in the eating pattern in Canada’s Food Guide depends on the specific foods or beverages that a person chooses, as well as how the food is prepared.

Where are sugars described in the Food Guide?
For optimal health, Health Canada recommends that we get most of our daily energy (45-65%) from carbohydrate. That is why the Food Guide encourages Canadians to emphasize vegetables and fruit and grain products. These carbohydrate-rich foods naturally contain sugars. Sugars are also found naturally in milk products. Sugars are also added to a wide range of foods found in the four food groups, such as breakfast cereals, yogurt, and tomato sauce. Enjoyed in moderation, sugars add taste and enjoyment to healthy eating.

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Nutrition Labelling and Claims

Nutrition labelling refers to the nutrition information that is found in the “Nutrition Facts” panel on food labels. It has been mandatory for most pre-packaged foods since December 2005. The goal of nutrition labelling is to help Canadians make more informed food choices, and enable consumers to compare products more easily. The food label must list the total amount of calories and 13 different nutrients. The regulations also include updated conditions for nutrient claims, and for the first time, five new diet related health claims.

Sugars can be found in three different places on the food label -- in the Nutrition Facts Table, in the Ingredient list, and in a “nutrient content claim” if a specific claim about sugars content is made.

Nutrition Facts Table

The Nutrition Facts Table provides information on Calories and 13 nutrients for the serving size shown. As part of the total carbohydrate, sugars and fibre must also be listed in the Nutrition Facts Table. Sugars include sugars found in foods such as milk, fruits and vegetables, as well as table sugar, honey and syrups. Sugars are listed in grams.

Carbohydrates - The total amount of carbohydrate and two types of carbohydrate (sugars and fibre) in a serving of food are among the 13 nutrients that must be listed in the Nutrition Facts Table. Other carbohydrate components such as starch, soluble and insoluble fibre, and sugar alcohols may be voluntarily listed on the Nutrition Facts Table.

Sugars - Sugars refer to all types of sugars naturally present and added to foods. Examples of naturally occurring sugars include sucrose, glucose and fructose in vegetables and fruits, and lactose in milk. Some of the sugars added to foods include sucrose (table sugar), glucose/fructose, honey and syrups. Regardless of its source, each of these sugars is chemically similar, and has the same effects on health.

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Ingredient List

All pre-packaged foods require an ingredient list. The ingredient list tells you what ingredients are in a packaged food, and are listed by weight from most to least. Therefore, if sugars are in the food product, they must be listed in the ingredient list. Some examples of words that you may see on the ingredient list that refer to sugar (and their source) are listed below:

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Sugar Claims

Sugars may also be part of “nutrient content claims”, which describe the amount of a nutrient in a food. A variety of nutrient content claims pertaining to sugars are permitted, however only the terms and wording outlined in the Food and Drug Regulations can be used to make a claim. Permitted “sugars” claims include the following:

For more detailed information on sugar labelling and claims, click here

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