Nutritious Nutella? All you need to know about the pitfalls of food labels
By Julia Belluz - Friday, May 4, 2012 - 0 Comments
secretpizzas/Flickr
In a tale reminiscent of the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit, moms in the U.S. brought a class-action case against Nutella maker Ferrero, claiming it misled them by portraying the chocolate spread as “an example of a tasty yet balanced breakfast.”
Their $3 million settlement came a few days after an access to information request by Postmedia revealed that some of the world’s biggest food brands and organic labels routinely lie about the nutrient make-up of their products. And this is not the first time Big Food was caught with its fingers in the proverbial cookie jar; similar studies in other jurisdictions have shown that there can be a gulf between stated and actual nutrition content.
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What she meant to say
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 10, 2010 at 12:23 PM - 16 Comments
On September 28, the Globe reported that provincial health ministers had been told by that the federal government would not be moving forward with new warning labels for cigarette packaging. When NDP health critic Megan Leslie asked about the apparent cancellation that day in the House, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq ignored the question. A month and a half later, Ms. Leslie asked again about the apparent decision and again Ms. Aglukkaq ignored the question.
This week though, in the wake of a CBC report that tobacco company lobbying preceded the apparent reversal, Ms. Aglukkaq told the House that “additional health information on labels is still under review” and “an announcement will be made soon.”
