Interactive Nutrition Facts Label

You may have noticed that there is nutrition information on many food packages in the grocery store. Canada introduced a new system for providing nutrition information on food labels in 2003. These new regulations are applicable to almost all prepackaged foods, ensuring the Nutrition Facts table has a consistent “look”, and making it easy to find and read. As of December 12, 2005, most companies are required to have a Nutrition Facts table on their food products.

To help you better understand the new food label, Health Canada has created a tool called the Interactive Nutrition Label. By exploring our new interactive tool, you can learn how to use nutrition information to make more informed choices about the foods you buy.

Use the Nutrition Facts table to help you make informed choices. Making healthy food choices can help reduce your risk of nutrition-related chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Specific Amount of Food

All the information in the Nutrition Facts table is based on a specific amount of food. Be sure to compare this amount to the amount you eat.

The first thing you should do when you read the Nutrition Facts is to:

Instructions:

Click on part of the label to learn more about the parts of a nutrition facts label.

This interactive nutrition facts label was designed, created, and provided by MyEatSmartMoveMore.com

Nutrition Claims

Use nutrition claims to make informed food choices.

The Government has rules in place that must be met before a nutrition claim can be made on a label or advertisement. The rules for nutrition claims apply to all foods, prepackaged and not prepackaged, no matter where they are sold.

A manufacturer can choose whether or not to include nutrition claims on the label or in the advertisement of a food.

Many products will have nutrition claims as these claims highlight a feature of interest to consumers.

Examples of claims

Source of Fibre
Manufacturers of food can highlight a product’s nutrition features using claims such as “Source of fibre”. “Source of fibre” means the food contains at least 2 grams of dietary fibre in the amount of food specified in the Nutrition Facts table.

Low Fat
“Low” is always associated with a very small amount. “Low fat” means that the food contains no more than 3 grams of fat in the amount of food specified in the Nutrition Facts table. In a healthy diet, the recommended range for fat intake is approximately one third of total Calories.

Cholesterol-free
The claim “Cholesterol-free” means that the product has a negligible amount (less than 2 mg of cholesterol in the amount of food specified in the Nutrition Facts table) and it is also low in saturated fat and trans fat.

Sodium-free
“Free” is an amount of a nutrient so small that health experts consider it nutritionally insignificant. A “sodium-free” claim means the amount of food specified in the Nutrition Facts table contains less than 5 mg of sodium.

Reduced in Calories
“Reduced in Calories” has at least 25% less energy (Calories) than the food it is being compared to.

Light
When referring to a nutritional characteristic of a product, “light” is allowed only on foods that are either “reduced in fat” or “reduced in energy” (Calories). “Light” can also be used to describe sensory characteristics of a food, provided that the characteristic is clearly identified with the claim (e.g., light tasting, light coloured).

List of Ingredients

Bran Cereal

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Ingredients: Whole wheat, wheat bran, sugar/glucose-fructose, salt, malt (corn flour, malted barley), vitamins (thiamine hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, d-calcium pantothenate), minerals (iron, zinc oxide).

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The list of ingredients is mandatory and has been on the food product package for many years. All of the ingredients for a food are listed in descending order by weight. The ingredients present in the greatest amount in a product are listed first. Therefore, in this example, whole wheat is the ingredient present in the greatest amount, since it is listed first.

The list is also a source of information for people who want to avoid certain ingredients or verify the presence of an ingredient in a food.

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