Ms. Maya Villeneuve graduated from the Université de Montréal in nutrition in 2000. Soon after, she joined the Bureau of Nutritional Sciences of Health Canada as a Nutrition Research Officer where she worked on several Provincial Nutrition Surveys. She then headed the Nutrition Survey Section in the same Bureau where she led the Health Canada team responsible for the development of nutrition content for the Canadian Community Health Survey – Nutrition (CCHS 2.2) and the Canadian Health Measures Survey. In 2010, she became the Associate Director in the Bureau of Nutritional Sciences where she provides scientific and policy advice on files such as the Healthy Eating Strategy as well as lead international files such as the Codex Alimentarius. She currently oversees activities related to the premarket assessment of foods, such as infant formula, policies and regulations related to the nutritional quality and safety of foods and, nutrition research and surveillance. She is also a member in good standing of the Ordre professionnel des diététistes du Québec.
As the federal leads on standard setting and policy development related to public health nutrition and the nutritional quality of the food supply, Health Canada’s Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion and the Bureau of Nutritional Sciences will provide updates on their new and ongoing initiatives. Current priorities have focused on supporting government-wide response to the COVID-19 response. These include introducing legislative measures to prevent shortages of some foods for special dietary uses, understanding the impact of the pandemic on determinants of healthy eating, and supporting Canadians in making and maintaining healthy eating habits. At the same time, work is continuing to advance pre-pandemic priorities, including the Healthy Eating Strategy and the Regulatory Review Roadmap. Some of the current activities include the development of a regulatory framework for human milk fortifiers and making changes to the Food and Drug Regulations to establish regulations for supplemented foods.