Eating well with Canada's Food Guide and Nutrition Facts Table: a simplified menu to facilitate their understanding by Canadian with low literacy skills (in French only)

Author

Me Marie-Hélène Beaulieu, Me Nalini Vaddapalli, B. ès SC, LLB.

Organization

Option consommateurs

Published

2007

Summary

The purpose of this report is to identify appropriate and effective avenues and means of communication that will help the roughly 12 million Canadian adults with low levels of literacy to understand the information contained in the new Canada Food Guide and the detailed nutritional information provided on food labels. Unfortunately, close to 50 percent of Canadian adults have a literacy level that limits their reading to “simple, straightforward texts relating to uncomplicated tasks”, which is not a sufficient level to allow people to function properly on a day-to-day basis. These observations underscore the potential influence that low literacy levels can have on the health of these people, who include both Canadians born in this country and those building a new home and a new life. With this in mind, Option consommateurs met not only with people who work in fields where food and nutrition play a central role, but also with organizations which, in the course of their work, deal with individuals with literacy-related problems. To ensure that their recommendations provided an accurate reflection of Canadian society, the discussion groups were composed of native Quebecers and people with a multi-ethnic background, including new Canadians. Option also conducted a review of relevant documents with the aim of preparing a summary of existing tools associated with the identified problem, which led them to conclude that although some interesting tools are available they are still few and far between.

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French only

• English (PDF document)
• French (PDF document)

OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database