Good News About Nutrition Facts and Allergies
Canada's new food allergen labelling regulations came into force on August 4, 2012. Patients are just now starting to reap the benefits from the new labeling guidelines. When counseling patients about celiac disease ( gluten-free diets ) or people with food allergies, it is now easier to determine what foods to choose and foods to avoid. The Food and Drug Regulations require that most prepackaged foods carry a label and that the ingredients appear on labels in decreasing order of proportion. However, some ingredients used in food products which were previously exempt from declaration in the list of ingredients, ( e.g ., components of margarine, seasoning and flour) will now be required to appear on food labels also. Based on consultations with stakeholders, including allergy associations and the medical community, Health Canada developed amendments to the Regulations to enhance labelling requirements for specific priority allergens, gluten sources and added sulphites i