Office of Consumer Affairs
September 2022
In this issue of Consumer Edge, find information on things to consider before you travel this summer and food safety tips for your trips near home. Watch our new video to learn how to recognize and report spam and read Option consommateurs' report on the topic of influencer marketing.
September 29: International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste aims to promote actions that reduce the amount of food that goes unconsumed. As a consumer, there are many simple ways you can limit your food loss and waste. For example, you may consider buying food in smaller quantities to ensure it is eaten before it spoils or you may wish to donate food that you know you will not eat before it expires.
Tools like the Food Waste Reduction Challenge and the Food Matters Action Kit can also help you reduce your food waste. Visit Environment and Climate Change Canada's Food loss and waste page to read more about these initiatives, as well as other ways you can help the cause.
Back to School reminders: protect your family's sensitive information
It's back to school season! As you're getting your kids ready for the new school year, we want to remind you to safeguard your family's sensitive information.
Many schools collect personal information about their students such as phone numbers, home addresses and, in some cases, social insurance numbers (SIN). Do not hesitate to ask how this information is being used and where it is being stored.
Protecting your family's sensitive information might be top of mind at the beginning of the school year but it's important to do it all year around. For tips on ways to keep your personal information safe, check out the Office of the Privacy Commissioner's 10 tips for protecting personal information page.
Les Éditions Protégez-Vous' eco-label decoder
Earlier this year, Les Éditions Protégez-Vous received funding through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program for Non-Profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations to develop an eco-label decoding app. The product developed by the organization, Le Décodeur, uses text search or image recognition to help consumers identify various labels and claims on products like food, cosmetics, home care, electronics and appliances.
The app is available in French only on the Apple App Store and on Google Play. Further details about the research behind this app is available on Les Éditions Protégez-Vous' website.
Find more consumer-related information from the Government of Canada on the News for Consumers page.
