Bad news, Canadians.
The government will no longer be policing nutritional labels. Read all about it here (they cut funding in their 2012 Canadian federal budget). Basically, they will no longer be double checking that industries (i.e. companies, who look out for profits not necessarily people) tell the truth on their food labels.
MSG in the food? We don't need to report that. Trans fats? Let's hide them! A bit of gluten never hurt anyone, right? People love fat-free desserts, so they'll be "no fat" in this one!
Oh the horror.
Why is this bad? What about all of the people who depend on accurate food labels, like:
1) Celiacs.
2) Diabetics.
3) People with food allergies (peanut, shellfish, lactose, etc).
4) People on special diets (low cholesterol, gluten-free, sugar-free, high protein, etc)
5) People trying to loose or gain weight and are mindful of caloric intake.
...and many, many more I'm sure. Canadians don't have enough (if any) nutritional training to begin with,;so many rely on reading the ingredients and nutritional breakdowns on labels to find out what they are eating. I don't think the majority of Canadians will really be affected by this change (McDonalds has food labels on their Big Macs, but does that scare people? No). However, people with serious food-related health concerns will be affected.
Gluten debilitates, peanuts kill, carbohydrates induce comas... this change is serious! We consumers deserve to know the truth. The powers that be should have chewed on this idea a little more before approving.
The budget had this and many other hard things to swallow.....as a frustrated public servant I say time for a new government fellow Canadians!!!!
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