Health Canada Giving Food Industry Nearly 7 YEARS to Adopt New Labels!

Whether or not you think Health Canada went far enough with their nutrition fact panel reforms (I don't), if you were wondering whose side Health Canada is on when it comes to nutrition - public health's or the food industry's - their labelling reform implementation plans are telling.

According to this piece by Trish Kozicka, the food industry will be given 5 years to implement the changes. 5 years? There's really no explanation for that kind of time frame beyond pandering to industry. Though industry pandering shouldn't come as a surprise. Much as Health Canada's stated mission is,

"to improve the lives of all of Canada 's people and to making this country's population among the healthiest in the world as measured by longevity, lifestyle and effective use of the public health care system",

at the end of the day Health Canada is an arm of government. That means that along with Health Canada's stated mission, are its unstated and genuine obligations to consider politics and the interests of the largest single contributor of the manufacturing sector to Canada's GDP - the food industry - when rolling out change.

As to why the headline reads nearly 7 years and not 5?

Kozicka explains,

.@YoniFreedhoff & the 5 years may not kick in for a while. @HealthCanada has 18 months after 75-day consults to publish final changes in CG2

— Trish Kozicka (@TrishKozicka) June 13, 2015

Too bad health isn't Health Canada's only concern.