It will soon be very easy to spot just how much sugar is in your food.
Health Canada has ordered companies to change the labelling on food products in order to make it easier for consumers to know what they are eating.
Instead of listing ingredients solely by amount, manufacturers will have to put foods of the same type together.
This means, for example, that a food which contains molasses, brown sugar and corn syrup would have to lump all those ingredients together under the term "sugar."
Products will also have to include special labels on the front if they have high levels of sodium, fat, or sugar.
The nutritional labels, commonly found on the side or the rear of a package, will also include a percentage value for sugar.
Corinne Voyer of the Quebec Coalition on Weight-Related Problems said this is a prudent move since most foods produced in Canada have added sugar.
She wishes, however, that companies would work faster to use the new labels, which are only required to be in place by 2021.
"Five years is long because the industry already knows what is in their products," said Voyer. "We're not asking them to change their recipes."
"It could be done in two years."
The new nutritional labels will also standardize some serving sizes.
For many single-serve products, manufacturers will have to include information for the entire amount people typically eat, instead of an arbitrary smaller portion.
Serving sizes for other products are also being standardized, such as two slices of bread, or 20 grams of cookies or crackers.
Manufacturers will no longer be required to include the amount of Vitamin A and C, since most Canadians get enough.
In its place manufacturers will be told to include the amount of potassium a food contains, since many Canadians do not get enough of this nutrient.
The changes to labelling were announced in December 2016 following two years of public consultations.
