Dr. Hasan Hutchinson

FORMER DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE OFFICE OF NUTRITION POLICY AND PROMOTION AT HEALTH CANADA

Until recently, for the past decade, Hasan was Director General of the Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion of Health Canada, the focal point for public health nutrition within the federal government. The Office’s main functions include dietary guidance, food and nutrition surveillance, research and data analysis, health promotion and public health nutrition policy.

Recent initiatives included the development and implementation of Canada’s Healthy Eating Strategy, policy development for Restricting Advertising to Children and development of the new Food Guide (Evidence Review reports, Dietary Guidelines for Health Professionals and Policy Makers, Food Guide Snapshot for Canadians, and extensive resources and tools on the new cloud-based Food Guide web application).

Hasan was also Health Canada’s representative on the Director General planning group developing the whole of government Food Policy for Canada (led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada with 16 other departments and agencies).

Hasan has served as co-chair of Canada’s Dietary Reference Intakes Steering Committee and of the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Group on Nutrition. He has been on a number of nutrition-related committees at the World Health Organization and the World Cancer Research Fund International and has served on health-related committees at the Pan American Health Organization, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and at the United Nations. He served as chair of the

Multi-Stakeholder Working Group which produced the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada and of the multi-sectoral Network on Healthy Eating.

Previously, Hasan was Associate Director of the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Before working in the public service, Hasan was a faculty member in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. His formal education includes a PhD in Quantitative Genetics and an ND in Naturopathic Medicine.