New Health Canada food labelling requirements for ground meat draw criticism The package labels would be applied to most foods that exceed 15 per cent of an adult’s recommended daily intake of sodium, sugar or saturated fat.
But some foods that are naturally high in sugar, such as unsweetened fruit, will be exempt from the labelling requirement, while dairy and eggs — though high in saturated fat — will also be exempt.Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said his industry can’t understand why its product is being “vilified.” He said Canadians consume approximately half of their calories from nutrient-poor ultra-processed foods, but by contrast, ground beef — while undeniably a source of saturated fat — is also a nutrient-dense protein that contains iron, zinc, and vitamin B12.“We believe there is a very, very compelling case to support an exemption,” Laycraft said in an interview.“The whole purpose of this (Health Canada proposal) largely came from a concern about highly processed foods, and foods with a lot of ingredients,” Laycraft said. “The idea of taking a single-ingredient food product and imposing these types of labels is not being done anywhere else in the world, and it is going to unfairly affect Canada’s farmers and ranchers.”Front-of-package nutrition labels exist in many countries around the globe.
For example, Chile recently introduced a mandatory warning label on foods high in calories, sugars, sodium or saturated fat.
The U.K. has a voluntary “traffic light” system that uses colours (red, amber, green) to convey a ranking for total fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt in a food.