Health Canada wants to make it easier for you to see how many calories — and how much added sugar — lurk in your favourite cereal.

On Monday, the federal agency announced its proposed changes to the familiar nutrition facts label found on thousands of grocery store items.

The updated version is largely being welcomed by nutrition and health professionals. It is the first revamp of the facts table since the federal government first mandated it to appear on prepackaged foods in 2007.

“Overall, they have made huge progress,” says Mary L’Abbe, professor and chair of the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto. “This will go a good way to helping consumers.”

However, she and other experts caution that a strong education campaign is needed to help consumers make sense of the facts table — even with its new look.

“Part of the problem with nutrition labeling is that it is still complicated. People don’t necessarily know how to interpret it.”

The new label is designed to better reflect the reality of modern-day eating, including the pervasiveness of larger portion sizes and the prevalence of sugar-sweetened grocery items.

In March, the World Health Organization suggested that added sugars in our diet should account for less than 10 per cent of total daily calories — the equivalent of about 13 teaspoons of sugar.

Health Canada has set a benchmark for total daily sugar consumption (including added and naturally occurring sugars) at 100 grams, or about 25 teaspoons’ worth.

Jennifer Taylor, professor and chair of the department of applied human sciences at the University of Prince Edward Island, says the nutrition facts label is a good tool for consumers who want to rank similar products, such as breads, cereals and fruit-flavoured yogurts.

But, she adds, these labels are not generally found on fresh produce, whole grains, meats and fish — foods that Canadians should be choosing most often as part of a healthy diet.

“We can’t sit back and think, ‘Okay, now we’ve solved the problem,’” she says of the label’s potential to impact obesity rates in Canada. “We can’t forget the millions of dollars that are spent each day to get us to put more foods in our mouths.”

Five things to know

Health Canada has set a 60-day period for consumers and stakeholders to provide feedback on the suggested changes.

In case you want to weigh in, here are five things you should know about the nutrition label’s potential makeover.

1. STANDARD SERVING SIZES

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The new label would require food manufacturers to make “serving sizes” consistent and have them better reflect the amount of food people actually eat. For example, a serving of bread would be set at two slices, since most people tend to eat two pieces of bread at one time.

2. LIST OF INGREDIENTS

Currently, ingredient lists are not always easy to find on a package, or easy to read. The recommendations would require ingredient lists to have a consistent look between products and to have: a separate title; minimum font size; black type (upper and lower case letters) on a white background; bullets to clearly separate ingredients; the entire list contained within an easy-to-see box.

3. SUGARS REVEALED

An updated nutrition facts label would help you more easily find “hidden” sources of sugar in prepared and packaged foods.

Currently, labels do not distinguish between added and naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in fruits, vegetables and unsweetened dairy products.

4. OVERALL LOOK

The new label would see a food’s calorie count be printed in bold, in a larger font size and moved to the top of the label.

In the upper half of the label, we would see nutrients that health experts recommend we consider limiting in our diet. These include fat, sodium and sugars. The lower half of the label would include nutrients we should aim to consume more of, including fibre, protein and iron.

5. VITAMINS

Health Canada wants companies to list the amount of potassium and vitamin D in foods, since these are nutrients most of us should consume more of every day.

The agency also recommends striking vitamins A and C from the label because Canadians generally get enough of these nutrients.