Trans-fat rules ‘on the table’: Health Canada

OTTAWA – Facing pressure from the restaurant industry and the opposition parties to force food companies and restaurants to limit trans fats in their products, Health Canada declared Thursday that regulations are "absolutely" on the table.

Samuel Godefroy, director general of Health Canada’s food directorate, said the government’s voluntary program to reduce the levels of the artery-clogging ingredient in food products has not yielded the desired results in all areas.

And after being peppered with questions from opposition MPs about an apparent reticence to bring in mandatory rules, Godefroy assured parliamentarians studying Ottawa’s strategy to reduce trans fats in foods that "the regulatory option is absolutely on the table."

But Godefroy also indicated such a step could take a while.

Health Canada is currently assessing replacement options to make sure "we don’t have any unintended health consequences." Godefroy also said the government needs to determine the "impact" on trade agreements of regulating the levels of trans fats in food products for sale in Canada, including imported goods.

In June 2007, Health Canada announced that the food and restaurant industries had two years to meet trans-fat reduction targets, set at no more than two per cent trans in the fat content of vegetable oils and spreadable margarine and five per cent in all other foods.

The government’s trans-fat monitoring program found that the levels in pre-packaged bakery goods at grocery stores and menu items available at small- and medium-sized food service operators remain a problem.

For example, 25 per cent of croissants meet the trans-fat target, compared to 33 per cent of doughnuts, 36 per cent of pies and 45 per cent of brownies.

The compliance rate is higher for other snacks, but the numbers are hardly exemplary. For example, 58 per cent of popcorn and 65 per cent of packaged cookies meet the five per cent limit, according to Health Canada.

And at fast-food and family restaurants, 59 per cent of chicken products and 78 per cent of french fries meet the trans-fat targets.

Trans fats, created by pumping hydrogen into liquid oil at an elevated temperature, raise the levels of low-density lipoprotein or "bad" cholesterol in the body and can lead to clogged arteries and heart disease.

Health critics for the three opposition parties told Godefroy it’s time for regulations.

"The government has to have more than pompoms, cheering for it to get off the shelves," Liberal health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett said.

Ron Reaman, a vice-president of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, also pleaded with Health Canada to bring in regulations, saying it’s a matter of "levelling the playing field."

In the absence of federal rules, municipalities and provinces have begun to target restaurants to reduce people’s exposure to trans fats in the food supply. But these jurisdictions only have authority over restaurants, so the foodservice industry is singled out to reduce trans fat levels while food processors have been given a free pass, Reaman testified.

"That’s the only lever available to them. They don’t have the purview to regulate along the food chain," said Reaman.

Sally Brown, head of the Heart and Stroke Foundation, co-chaired Health Canada’s trans-fat task force, which brought together scientists, the food industry and health advocates to develop the trans-fat-reduction targets.

On Thursday, Brown challenged Godefroy for citing trade implications as a rationale for a delay in tabling regulations.

"With all due respect, that issue came up (at the task force). I can’t believe we don’t know the answer to that. I really don’t," Brown told MPs.