Do you really know what you’re eating?
Posted December 2, 2011 9:39 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The federal government is no longer randomly testing labelled things in the grocery store for exaggerated nutrition information and unproven health claims. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency points to budgetary constraints as the reason for the changes.
People on the street say this is difficult for them to digest; Graham tells us he loves food, loves his kids, and loves knowing what he’s feeding his family.
“You want to know [and] make sure what’s in there,” he tells us. “If they say there’s no peanuts, you want to make sure there’s no peanuts, right? They can say it but does it mean it?”
He blames the CFIA’s move to a more American way. “I know the Americans are a lot more lenient than the Canadians so maybe they are starting to lean that way which is not good for us. Our food inspection has always been better than our neighbours to the south.”
Erick says he used to ignore food labels, but he’s started to pay attention. “Ever since I got married and more interested in my health… I think a lot of people nowadays are interested in speed and convenience so they don’t even really take a second glance on what’s on the label.”
He doesn’t buy what the feds are selling, and says governments should put the dollars into testing. “There should be some sort of system that’s in place where we’re testing anything that we’re producing in terms of food.”
“Everybody needs to know what’s in the food: the nutritional content, sourcing of the ingredients, everything like that. We’re really breaking away from keeping stuff natural, and moving towards more processed foods. I think the more we process, the more we’re trying to hide origins of food.”
