Yogurt might get more fortified in Canada

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Well, it could be getting even more fortified in Canada now that Canada’s Health Department is rewriting regulations to permit the inclusion of vitamin D supplements, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Vitamin D is important for bone health yet many people are not getting enough,” the department wrote in a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement.

A Statistics Canada 2010 study said as many as 7% of Canadians, specifically men aged 20-39, have a vitamin D deficiency due to long, dark winters and lack of sunlight.

The department has issued a legal notice under the Food And Drugs Act permitting vitamin D supplements in yogurt and kefir, the latter a type of fermented milk.

Official estimates put yogurt sales alone at $2.9 billion a year.

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“This regulation will not result in any price effect on the supplies of yogurt and kefir in Canada due to the competitive nature of the food market,” said the notice.

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The health department added vitamin D to soy milk in 1997.

“Approximately one in five people living in Canada has vitamin D blood values that are generally considered inadequate for bone health,” said the Analysis Statement.

“Furthermore almost half of this group have blood values so low they are at elevated risk of deficiency symptoms such as weak bones.”

It is difficult for Canadians to get adequate vitamin D from sunlight, according to a 2004 health department report, Vitamin D supplementation.

“The geographic latitude of Canada means inadequate ultraviolet exposure to stimulate formation of vitamin D in the skin for a large portion of the year,” said the report.

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