The Canadian government has stacked its food advisory panels with people who either work for, or get funding from food corporations, says a group of scientists and researchers. The group studied the makeup of the panels and published its findings in the journal Open Medicine.
The panels make recommendations to the government on such things as how to reduce salt and trans fats in foods, how to ensure foods are safe and what constitutes a healthy diet.
Listen“Industry plays a very large role in controlling these panels and …in acting as a gatekeeper for the advice that goes forward to Health Canada and the government on issues related to food policy,” says Dr. Kevin Willis, executive director of the Canadian Stroke Network, who has himself, served on such panels.
Panels not transparent, says report
Others who shared his concern agreed and they decided to take a closer look. They say they found the panels to be largely composed of industry representatives and not transparent enough. “It’s a very secretive process with non-disclosure agreements and very limited information available to the public on what’s going on and it’s all controlled, in effect, by the food industry,” says Willis.
As an example of the effects of this influence, he notes that Canada has not obliged corporations to reduce sodium or trans fats in their products as other countries have done.
The food industry has “a vested interest”
“The food industry has a very strong vested interest,” says Willis. “The policies are likely to affect their operating procedures and profits and markets. So clearly it’s in their interest to try to exert as much control as they possibly can. They seem to have been very successful in doing that.”
Public health is “at stake”
People don’t realize the important role diet plays in their overall health, he adds. Poor diet is associated with heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer and dementia.
“What’s at stake here is public health,” says Willis. “You only have to look at the rising levels of obesity, diabetes, and the diseases that flow from a poor diet in the western world to know that we have a problem with the food supply.
“And if we don’t do something about it it’s really going to cripple the whole country economically just due to the health care costs aside from the tremendous personal impact that it’s going to have on the population.”
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