WHAT IS FOOD LITERACY?
Food literacy is more than just about knowing what’s on your plate. It goes beyond our eating behaviours to consider culture, food access, and food environments. Other parts of food literacy include:
- Knowing about food – understanding food and nutrition.
- Having food skills – your ability to buy, prepare, cook, handle and store food.
- Feeling confident when choosing, preparing and eating food
- Making nutritious food decisions most of the time
- Having a good local food system, food environment, living situation, and culture and traditions.
Learn a little more about the key aspects of food literacy here.
The Canada’s Food Guide promotes food literacy and recommends we:
An important part of food literacy is knowing about food safety. The Health Unit offers food handler certification exams which are needed for some jobs where food is prepared for the public.
Some of the ways the Health Unit supports food literacy in our community include working together with community partners to provide health information, training for cooking programs and support for planning or creating food programs, such as community gardens and kitchens, good food boxes, and food festivals. The Health Unit is a member of the Simcoe County Food Council and the Food Council’s Food Literacy Education Working Table.
Having more chances in our community to learn about and practice food literacy, can help improve our health. If you or your group are interested in promoting food skills, but need support, reach out to us.
How To Use Food Labels
Canadian food labels have changed in recent years. Check out additional information about food labels at Health Canada.
Food labels include a nutrition facts table which can help you make decisions about which foods to purchase and eat, based on whether they contain a little, or a lot of certain nutrients. You may want to limit nutrients such as: sodium, sugar or saturated fat. You may want more of other nutrients, such as: iron, fibre, calcium or potassium.
Food labels may also include a front-of-package nutrition symbol. These symbols are required on foods that are high in one or more of sodium, sugar or saturated fat. The food industry has been given until January 1, 2026 to make this change. An example of what this label looks like is:
Food labels may include a supplemented food label, if the food contains added supplemental ingredients like vitamins, minerals, or other ingredients (e.g., caffeine). All supplemented foods may have a caution identifier on the front of the label. All of these products will have a supplemented food facts table, instead of a nutrition facts table. The food industry has been given until January 1, 2026 to make this change. An example of what the supplemented food label looks like is:
