Canadian officials may stop importation of products with "low carb" labels

• The federal government is putting Canadian food producers on a strict carbohydrate labelling diet that could knock a number of new product lines off grocery store shelves next year.
• Health Canada says there's no scientific evidence to support low-carb diets, such as the ubiquitous Atkins diet, and the absence is reflected in new rules on labelling that come into effect in December 2005.
• "There was --- and still is --- no reason from a nutrient point of view to be concerned with the amount of carbs that we eat," Carole Saindon, a spokeswoman for Health Canada, said in an interview.
• But low carb is not," said Saindon.
• "This means that other statements about the presence or absence of carbohydrates, including the use of brand names and trademarks, are subject to these regulations," says the letter.
• In April, Unilever Canada launched a 22-product Carb Options line, following an earlier January launch in the U.S. It was one of some 1,863 products or packages with low-carb claims introduced this year, according to one U.S. market research firm.
• Trademarks such Carb Options and CarbWell, are "implying there's something about carbohydrate in the food --- either that there's a low level or some level or no level or that there's something better about theirs," said the agency's Charmaine Kuran.
• "Most of those types of trademarks that you'll see on the market we will not be accepting once they move over to the new labelling regulations."
• Continuing consumer demand has recently come into question, however, with some industry leaders suggesting there's a glut of low-carb products in a shrinking market.
• "While we are clearly seeing that the low-carb trend, or fad, has peaked and it looks like it is taking a bit of a dive in the supermarkets, we have yet to see the recovery of those (other food) categories that were impacted by low-carb," Kellogg CEO Carlos Gutierrez said in a July conference call with investors.
• Ipsos-Reid also found that 81 per cent of respondents wanted federal regulation of low-carb claims on food and beverage labels.