September 18, 2009 – Manufacturers of low-nutrient foods are unlikely to be able to fortify their products with vitamins or minerals in the name of food innovation.
According to an anonymous source quoted by the Montreal newspaper The Gazette1, Health Canada has decided to exclude junk food from foods that can be fortified under the future Global Policy on Optional Fortification of Foods.
Health Canada has been trying to deliver this policy for 4 years now, but to no avail.
In December 2008, the Canadian Department of Health released its Strategy for Modernizing Food and Nutrition Regulations.2. The objective: to promote more flexibility to promote food innovation for products whose health benefits have been demonstrated.
But last March, a draft regulation to adopt this policy was withdrawn after the Canadian Medical Association decried the government’s intention to allow the fortification of junk foods.
Which would no longer be the case now. This is good news, according to nutritionist Véronique Provencher.
“Allowing to restore the image of junk food by fortification could have encouraged people to consume more of it, which would have been harmful in terms of public health”, explains the professor attached to the Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (INAF) of Laval University.
A “halo” that makes you eat more
Are we really tempted to consume more of a junk food enriched with vitamins or minerals? Yes, according to Véronique Provencher who is also a specialist in the impact of health claims on consumption.
“For example, in a study I conducted, women exposed to the health benefits of simple fortified cookies ate more of them than when they were cookies that had no health claims,” she says. , by specifying that the addition of vitamins and minerals provides a “halo” to junk food products.
Yes to innovation, but …
While Health Canada appears determined to exclude junk food from foods that can be fortified, Véronique Provencher remains suspicious.
“As Health Canada has not confirmed anything, we will have to remain vigilant, because the agri-food industry is putting a lot of pressure in order to have the free field, in the name of food innovation and competitiveness,” she says. .
According to her, a stricter policy will not prevent innovation. “Food manufacturers could turn to the development of new products from better nutrients, as is done at INAF from cereal or dairy products,” says Véronique Provencher.
Be careful, however: in Canada, the challenge is no longer so much to compensate for vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but rather to limit their overconsumption, she concludes.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
According to The Gazette.
1. Schmidt S, Fortified junk food OK scrap, The Gazette, September 11, 2009.
2. Health Canada, Health Canada’s Food and Nutrition Regulatory Modernization Strategy, December 2008. The document is available at www.hc-sc.gc.ca [consulté le 18 septembre 2009].
