GUIDE TO FOOD LABELLING AND ADVERTISING - Health Claims

8.1 Introduction
A health claim is any representation in labelling or advertising that states, suggests, or implies that a relationship exists between consumption of a food, or an ingredient in the food, and health. Health claims may be stated explicitly with words, or implied through symbols, graphics, logos or other means such as a name, trade mark or seal of approval. While the term 'health claim' is not formally defined in food regulations in Canada, health claims have been classed into three main categories: disease risk reduction and therapeutic claims; function claims; and general health claims.

Most disease risk reduction and therapeutic claims are drug claims. A drug claim is a claim that suggests that the product has the properties of a drug (e.g., the treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease,disorder or abnormal physical state or its symptoms) or that the product has an effect on the body that is beyond that which is normally associated with a food (e.g., restoring, correcting or modifying organic functions in the body). Disease risk reduction claims and therapeutic claims are allowed on food only where specifically permitted by the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR; the Regulations). Disease risk reduction claims are generally statements that link a food or a constituent of a food to reducing the risk of developing a diet-related disease or condition (e.g. osteoporosis, cancer, hypertension) in the context of the total diet. The composition of a food that carries the claim must contribute to a dietary pattern associated with the claimed benefit. One example of such a claim is "A healthy diet with adequate calcium and vitamin D, and regular physical activity, help to achieve strong bones and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis." Currently, there are several disease risk reduction claims permitted on food in Canada; these are discussed in 8.4 of this Guide. Therapeutic claims, on the other hand, are claims about treatment or mitigation of a disease or health-related condition, or about restoring, correcting or modifying body functions. At present, no therapeutic claims have been approved for food in Canada.