Food Guide Basics Choosing Foods Using the Food Guide Maintaining Healthy Habits

General Principles for the Use of Content from Canada's Food Guide Resources in Labelling and Advertising

These General Principles provide guidance on the use of content from the 2007 Canada's Food Guide resources - Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide, the Resource for Educators and Communicators and the Canada's Food Guide web site - on food labels or in advertisements. The goal is to encourage consistent messaging about healthy eating to avoid misleading consumers and enable them to make informed choices for healthy eating.

Information on labelling guidelines and regulations can be found on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency web site.

General Principles:

• When referencing Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide or statements from this Guide, the name Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide or Canada's Food Guide should be used.
• Nutrition and health claims must comply with the applicable regulations. Statements from the 2007 Canada's Food Guide resources about nutrition or a diet-disease relationship can only be used in compliance with the Food and Drugs Act and conditions specified in the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) for claims.
• When information is taken from the 2007 Canada's Food Guide relating to the quantity of food (e.g. Recommended Number of Food Guide Servings per Day or What is One Food Guide Serving?), the information relating to the quality of food (e.g. Make each Food Guide Serving count) should be respected.
• When statements from the 2007 Canada's Food Guide are used, the essence (the principles of healthy eating as communicated throughout Canada's Food Guide) of the other guidance in Canada's Food Guide should be respected. Wording of the statements should be the same as they appear in Canada's Food Guide.
• The "Recommended Number of Food Guide Servings per Day" can be presented by age group, without reproducing the whole table.  However, a Food Guide Serving must also be defined.
• When references to statements from the 2007 Canada's Food Guide are used on labels or in advertisements of foods normally exempted from having to show Nutrition Facts tables under B.01.401 (2) FDR, this exemption is lost and the Nutrition Facts table will be required on the food label in accordance with B.01.401(3) (e) of the FDR. For example, a bag of carrots bearing the statement "Canada's Food Guide recommends eating at least one dark green and one orange vegetable each day" would be required to show a Nutrition Facts table.
• Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide may be reproduced without permission in its entirety with no changes. The front covers of Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide and Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide: A Resource for Educators and Communicators may be reproduced in their respective entireties without permission with no changes. We only ask that: users exercise due diligence in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced; Health Canada be identified as the source; and, the reproduction is not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced, nor as having been made, in affiliation with or with the endorsement of Health Canada.