Bill 59 explained in plain English
Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating Act, 2013
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
The Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating Act, 2013, requires large food service chains in Ontario to display calorie counts, indicate high sodium content, and provide nutritional brochures for their menu items.
Bill 59, also known as the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating Act, 2013, aims to require certain food service chains in Ontario to provide nutritional information about their food and drink items. This information would include the number of calories, details on high and very high sodium content, and general nutritional information available in brochures. The bill specifies criteria for the food service premises that must comply: they must be part of a chain with at least five locations in Ontario and have a gross annual revenue exceeding $5 million. The bill also outlines penalties for non-compliance.
- Amends the Health Protection and Promotion Act to introduce new requirements for certain food service premises.
- Requires food service premises that are part of a chain with at least five locations in Ontario and a gross annual revenue over $5 million to display the number of calories per serving for all food and drink items.
- Mandates that these food service premises make available brochures containing nutritional information for their food and drink items.
- Requires these food service premises to indicate when food and drink items have high or very high sodium content.
- Establishes offenses and penalties for failing to comply with these new requirements.
- Owners or operators of food service premises that are part of a chain with a minimum of five locations in Ontario and a gross annual revenue exceeding $5 million.
- Consumers who purchase food and drink from these specified food service premises.
- Obligation for specified food service premises to display the number of calories per serving for all food and drink items.
- Obligation for specified food service premises to make available brochures with nutritional information for all food and drink items.
- Obligation for specified food service premises to indicate high and very high sodium content in food and drink items.
- Right for consumers to access this nutritional information.
- The Act comes into force eight months after it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill specifies that the affected food service premises must have a gross annual revenue of over $5 million.
- Penalties for offenses are financial fines, with a maximum of $500 for a first offense and $5,000 for subsequent offenses, for each day the offense occurs or continues.
- It is an offense to contravene the requirements of section 16.1 of the amended Health Protection and Promotion Act.
- A first offense is subject to a fine of not more than $500 for every day or part of a day the offense occurs or continues.
- A second or subsequent offense is subject to a fine of not more than $5,000 for every day or part of a day the offense occurs or continues.
- The specific methods for determining high and very high sodium content, and the exact format and content of the nutritional information brochures, will be prescribed by regulations. The bill does not detail these specifics.
- The bill applies only to food service premises that meet the criteria of being part of a chain with at least five locations in Ontario and a gross annual revenue over $5 million. Smaller chains or independent establishments are not directly subject to these specific requirements under this bill.
Introduces new requirements for specific food service premises regarding the display and availability of nutritional information for food and drink items, and adds a new section (16.1) detailing these requirements and applicability.
Source: Section 1
Adds clauses to subsection 96 (3) to allow for regulations to be made concerning the form and content of nutritional information brochures and the method for determining and indicating high sodium content.
Source: Section 2
Inserts '16.1' after '16' in subsection 100 (3), likely to connect the new section to existing provisions or referencing requirements.
Source: Section 3
Adds a new subsection (1.1) to Section 101 to specify the penalties for contravening the new section 16.1, including daily fines for first, second, and subsequent offenses.
Source: Section 4
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced