Kids & Company Blog

Nutrition Facts 101

Nutrition facts tables are very daunting to many.  Long lists of confusing ingredients and conflicting serving sizes lead tons of us to avoid reading these important tables.  Nutrition fact tables should never be overlooked especially if we are looking out for allergens.  Thankfully for us, Health Canada is changing the laws on how manufacturers have to display nutrition facts!  Starting in 2017 and over the next few years, you will start to notice differences that will make our lives much easier!

The first change that will come as a relief to many is the ingredient list.  This list is often longer than we expect for many foods and ingredients we might try to avoid are hidden behind complicated names.  Based on these new regulations, sugar and all sugar based ingredients must be listed in brackets after the word ‘Sugar’.  This means not needing to scan through the depths of these lists to find every last sweet ingredient! Until now there has been no percentage daily value for sugar.  A percentage daily value is the percentage of a nutrient provided by 1 serving of that food based on Health Canada recommendations.  Now we can compare how much sugar is a lot and how much is just a little!

• 5% DV or less is a little
• 15% DV or more is a lot

Below is a comparison of the current labeling system versus the proposed concise and more informative summarized layout of the nutrition facts.

Another change that is very important is listing food dyes with their colour name so we know what they are.  For example, rather than just seeing “artificial colours” on a label, you now might see “Allura Red and Blue No. 2.” At the Kidco Kitchen, we are committed to serving your kiddies food with no artificial colours but this listing information is critical because some children are allergic to food dyes!

Another area of change that is being made are the serving sizes. It can be extremely difficult to choose the best option to feed our kiddies when all of the serving sizes are so different! Ingredients that can be measured such as yogurt will now have a common measurement such as “cups” as well as a metric amount such as “grams.”  Also, similar foods will now have the same serving size.  So, if you are comparing two brands of yogurt they will both show servings as “1/2 cup” for example.  For certain foods, the amount that is usually eaten will now be listed as well as that amount in grams. For example, sliced bread will list “2 slices (64 g).”

We know how important it is to you that your kids and loved ones are eating the best they can!  At the Kidco Kitchen we have done all the tough work for you as all of the food we serve far surpasses Health Canada’s Food Guide regulations for each age group! By cooking all of our food from scratch we can ensure that it meets the needs of your kiddies and doesn’t contain excess of ingredients you don’t want!  Enjoy peace of mind as you read through simple, to the point nutrition facts tables!

From our kitchen to yours…Enjoy!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @kidcochildcare and on Instagram @cheflisaruscica!

Cheers,

Chef Lisa Ruscica

Chief Food Ambassador

Posted on: Wednesday August 23rd, 2017

Posted by: Lisa Ruscica