INDUSTRY NEWS: Health Canada to give food companies greater flexibility to add supplements to more foods

According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, Health Canada is newly committed to putting a discretionary fortification policy in place after the government put on hold a plan last September that would have allowed food companies to add supplements to a range of foods, including junk foods.

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Health Canada opens door to more vitamins, minerals in foods

By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service

Health Canada's new commitment to put a new discretionary fortification policy in place comes after the government shelved a blueprint last September; the plan, tabled in 2005 by the previous Liberal government, would have allowed food companies to add supplements to a range of food products, including junk food such chocolate bars and chips.

Health Canada's new commitment to put a new discretionary fortification policy in place comes after the government shelved a blueprint last September; the plan, tabled in 2005 by the previous Liberal government, would have allowed food companies to add supplements to a range of food products, including junk food such chocolate bars and chips.

OTTAWA — Health Canada is moving to allow food companies to add vitamins and minerals to more products — in part because so many companies are already using a government loophole to get their fortified snacks and drinks onto store shelves.

In a new letter to industry executives and public-health advocates, the head of nutritional sciences at Health Canada's food directorate puts them on notice that the government is working to give food companies greater flexibility to add supplements to more foods. And that's partly because food companies have swamped Health Canada's natural health products branch to get their products on to the market through a back channel.

"Some members of the food industry have sought faster market access for fortified foods by applying for product licences as natural health products," William Yan wrote in his letter announcing a one-day think tank next month to find a "path forward" for the "expanded voluntary addition of vitamin and mineral nutrients to foods."

Health Canada has received "several hundred" natural health product licence applications for "products in food format," so the government intends to transition to the food regulatory framework, Yan writes. And for that to happen, Health Canada must loosen the rules for fortified foods, he says.

The department established the natural health products directorate in 2004 to regulate herbal remedies. But as the backlog of licence applications grew, the directorate created an amnesty program to allow applicants to sell unlicensed products, provided they had submitted an application and Health Canada was not aware of any health risk associated with the product.

By the fall of 2009, there were nearly 500 juice and water products, about 150 energy drinks and 25 candy products sitting on the natural health products wait-list. The food industry refers to this as a "workaround" to get novel foods on to the market.

Health Canada's new commitment to put a new discretionary fortification policy in place comes after the government shelved a blueprint last September; the plan, tabled in 2005 by the previous Liberal government, would have allowed food companies to add supplements to a range of food products, including junk food such chocolate bars and chips.

In Yan's letter, Health Canada admits public-health advocates had expressed concerns about "the possible use of claims for these fortified foods that could lead consumers to make poor food choices." Some in the food industry, however, thought the 2005 plan "did not go far enough," Yan noted.

In the lead up to Health Canada's Feb. 16 think-tank on expanding the voluntary addition of supplements to foods, the same lines are being drawn.

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an Ottawa-based obesity expert, would prefer closing loopholes than open up the market to more fortified foods and drinks.

"If the chief of police said, 'You know what? There's a lot of people speeding on the highway, we should probably raise the speed limit.' I don't think that's a good idea," said Freedhoff, who's concerned consumers lack the "nutritional wherewithal" to appraise claims about fortified products and juices.

"It's a glass of sugar water, but if we put Omega-3s in everything and various other nutrients in things and promote that as being incredibly healthy on the front of packages, I worry about that."

Applauding Health Canada for putting this issue on the "frontburner," the spokesman for the Food and Consumer Products of Canada, disagrees.

"We have a savvy, educated consumer base in Canada looking for healthier products, and we believe fortified foods is one way to deliver on that promise to Canadians," said Derek Nighbor.

"This is not about a public health imperative. This is about making the broader food supply a little bit healthier and introducing consumer choice."

Valerie Tarasuk, nutritional sciences professor at the University of Toronto, says getting food products out of the natural health products regime is the right move, but she still has some concerns.

"I think everybody agrees it's a real problem that we have a whole lot of foods that are on the market that look like foods and act like foods, except they aren't covered under the food regulations," said Valerie Tarasuk, nutritional sciences professor at the University of Toronto.

For example, foods sold as a natural health product do not need to include a nutritional fact box, such as caloric intake and sugar content.

But Tarasuk said sanctioning the proliferation of fortified foods could put consumers, especially children and teenagers, at risk of consuming excessive levels of such nutrients as folic acid, calcium or niacin.

Source: Vancouver Sun