Advice

The public is advised to maintain a balanced diet, choose foods that have lower trans fats, saturated fats and cholesterol content and avoid using hydrogenated oil/fat and animal fat in preparing food.

 

Members of the public are also advised to make reference to the information in the Nutrition Label to make healthier food choices.

 

"Thanks for supporting the fight against heart disease"

Trade Aspects of Regulating the Trans Fat Content of Foods

As part of its mandate, the Task Force was asked to assess the trade implications of its recommendations. Although this topic was raised in a number of discussions, the Task Force did not possess the expertise to explore it thoroughly.

 

The issue was addressed primarily through advice from government officials responsible for international programs and international trade policy.

 

The Task Force was advised that mandating a limit on the trans fat content of foods would not conflict with Canada's international obligations under World Trade Organization agreements, in particular the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. This is because Canada can claim that limiting the amount of trans fats in the Canadian diet is necessary to fulfill the legitimate objective of protecting human health.

 

Canada's position is supported by internationally recognized scientific organizations such as the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies, the World Health Organization and the Danish Nutrition Council, which agree that the intake of trans fats should be as low as possible. Canada's position is also supported by the fact that other jurisdictions have adopted measures to limit the consumption of trans fats.

 

If the Task Force's recommendations for regulating the trans fat content of foods are implemented, it is expected that many companies will have to develop or reformulate their products for sale in Canada. However, it is clear that reducing dietary trans fat is a pressing issue in both Canada and the United States, as well as in many other countries. Products developed to meet the Canadian regulatory limits will be marketable in these other countries. The regulation may even give Canadian firms a marketing advantage.

 

Although the proposed regulation does not conflict with Canada's international trade obligations, it will clearly have some effect on trade. Thus it will be important for Canada to notify its key trading partners and members of the World Trade Organization and provide them with reasonable time to comment. Consideration of the comments received should allow for a comprehensive assessment of the trade implications of the Task Force's recommendations.

 

The federal government must also pursue discussions with Canada's main trading partner, the United States, to address existing and potential differences as recommended in the Task Force's interim report. For example, the U.S. approach has been to require the amount of trans fat in foods to be disclosed on the label, but it has placed no limits on trans fat content.

 

Nevertheless, many companies selling in the American market have already reformulated their products to contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. At this level they are not required to disclose the trans fat content, even if it is greater than 5% of the total fat content. If a regulatory maximum of 5% of total fat is established for the trans fat content of foods in Canada, companies would no longer be able to sell some of these recently reformulated products in Canada.