OBJECTIVE: To examine the proportion of products offered by leading food brands in Canada that are 'unhealthy' according to Health Canada's (HC) nutrient profile model for proposed restrictions on food marketing to children (M2K-NPM). DESIGN: Nutritional information for products offered by top brands was sourced from the University of Toronto FLIP and Menu-FLIP 2020 databases, respectively. HC's M2K-NPM, which includes thresholds for Na, total sugars and saturated fat, was applied to products. SETTING: Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Overall, 1385 products from top breakfast cereal ( RESULTS: For 42 % of brands ( CONCLUSIONS: Most products offered by top food brands in Canada exceeded HC's M2K-NPM thresholds. Nonetheless, these brands could still be marketed under the proposed regulations, which exclude brand marketing (i.e. promotions without an identifiable product) despite its contribution to marketing power. These findings reinforce the need for Canada and other countries to include brand marketing in M2K policies.