GINETTE Petitpas Taylor, federal Minister of Health, on Monday announced the translation of Canada’s new Food Guide snapshot into 26 languages besides English and French. This translated guidance will help people whose first language is not English or French make healthy eating choices for themselves and their families.
The announcement was made in Brampton South, alongside local MP Sonia Sidhu.
The government notes that Canada is a country that prides itself on its diversity. With more than 37 million people in Canada, we have many residents whose first language is neither English nor French, and who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Canada’s new Food Guide already recognizes the benefits of exploring diverse cultures and food traditions as a part of healthy eating. By making the Food Guide snapshot available in additional languages, more Canadians will be able to access its healthy eating guidance.
Through the Food Guide, Canadians can expand and explore healthy recipes and cooking methods from their own cultural backgrounds and the cultural backgrounds of others. The various Food Guide tools and resources offer opportunities to communicate a variety of examples of healthy meals, which consider choices that are culturally relevant to Canada’s diverse population.
The new Food Guide is an integral part of the Healthy Eating Strategy, which aims to make the healthier choice the easier choice for all Canadians.
Taylor said: “2019 Canada’s new Food Guide was developed to be relevant to and accessible by all Canadians. Today, I am pleased to announce the translation of Canada’s Food Guide Snapshot into 26 additional languages—making it more accessible and easier to understand by Canadians whose first language is not English or French. Now, more Canadians will be able to benefit from our healthy eating guidance.”
Sidhu said: “We introduced the new Canada Food Guide so that Canadians can get trusted guidance to help them make healthy food choices for themselves and their families. And, today, I am proud that we are ensuring all Canadians – regardless of their culture or language – will be able to benefit from it.”
Quick Facts
* In addition to Canada’s two official languages, Canada’s Food Guide Snapshot is now available in 26 additional languages:
– Indigenous: Dene, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut (Baffin), Inuktitut (Nunatsiavut), Inuktitut (Nunavik), Michif, Ojibwe, Oji-Cree and Plains Cree.
– Multicultural: Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Farsi, German, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Simplified Chinese (Mandarin), Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Urdu and Vietnamese.
* Since the launch in January 2019, the Food Guide snapshot has been downloaded more than 220K times with almost 3 million visits to healthy eating tips and resources.
* Recognizing the benefits of cultural preferences and food traditions as part of Canada’s Food Guide provides a suite of healthy eating resources, including diverse recipes.
