Ontario Medical Association’s Menu Labelling
Advice Just What the Doctor Ordered
OTTAWA (April 7, 2009)−
−Bill Jeffery, national coordinator of the Centre for Science in the Public
Interest (CSPI), issued the following statement on today’s recommendation by the Ontario Medical
Association that the Government of Ontario mandate calorie labelling on menus at chain-restaurants and
school cafeterias:
Studies show that consumers, even trained dietitians, are lousy at guessing the number of calories
and amounts of key nutrients like sodium in typical restaurant fare. Without that information, even
health-conscious diners can unwittingly polish-off an entire day’s worth of calories in a single
meal. Who could guess that that an East Side Mario’s “starter” Mamma’s Best Bruschetta with a
Tuscan Chicken Salad and a glass of water packs 1,300 calories—approximately three-quarters
of the caloric needs of a typical adult woman—or that a healthy-sounding Tim Hortons Wheat
Carrot Muffin has nearly double the calories of a Maple Dip Donut (400 versus 210 calories)?
It’s time for Canadian governments and restaurant chains to see the writing on the wall.
Yesterday’s announcement by the British Minister of State for Public Health and recent progress
made by US state and local governments and major national fast-food chains show how
Canadians could capture public health benefits and ensure informed consumer choice. The
Ontario Medical Association’s advice should convince Canadian governments to stop being
complicit in restaurants’ efforts to conceal nutrition facts about food they serve to consumers.
Nearly a decade has passed since the Canadian federal government politically committed to
require nutrition labelling on most packaged foods sold in Canada. Since then, Canadians have
come to rely to the Nutrition Facts labels on groceries they feed to their families. Nutrition
information is vital to help reduce the risk of heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, and other
illnesses. In 2000, Health Canada decided to exempt restaurants from providing any nutrition
information whatsoever and, in 2006, the federal Parliament gave restaurants another free pass in
exchange for phoney promises that large chains would voluntarily provide such information.
-30For more information, call: Bill Jeffery, National Coordinator of CSPI at 613-244-7337.
Note to Editors: CSPI’s survey of 136 restaurants CSPI, conducted in the fall of 2007, revealed that
two-thirds of 27 chains failed to live up to even the feeble standards set by the Canadian Restaurant and
Food Service Association’s nutrition information program; for details see:
http://www.cspinet.org/canada/foodlabelling.html . See Health Canada’s estimates of caloric needs of
age/sex groups at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/basics-base/1_1_1-eng.php
Background: On April 9, 2009, debate is scheduled to begin in the Ontario Legislature on a bill
proposing to mandate calorie labelling on menus of large chain restaurants (and to restrict the use of
trans-fat laden partially hydrogenated vegetable oils). Sudbury NDP MP introduced the Bill 156 last
month.
Since 2003, authorities in New York City, California, and a slew of US local and state governments
(see: http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/ml_map.pdf ) have implemented, passed or proposed mandatory
nutrition labelling laws for restaurant menus. And last October, US fast food Giant Yum! Brands
pledged to put calorie labelling on menus at the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell stores it controls.
Yesterday, the United Kingdom Minister for Public Health Dawn Primarolo and the arms-length UK
Food Standards Agency announced the names of 18 major restaurant chains and foodservices
companies—including companies with major operations in Canada like 2009 commitments Burger
King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway—set to post calorie information on menus in the coming months.
CSPI is an independent health advocacy organization with offices in Washington and Ottawa.
CSPI'
s Ottawa advocacy efforts are supported by 120,000 subscribers to the Canadian edition of its
Nutrition Action Healthletter. CSPI does not accept industry or government funding and
Nutrition Action does not carry advertisements.