Notice to industry – Final publication of Food Product Innovation regulatory changes

2022-07-06

The Government of Canada has published the Food Product Innovation regulatory changes in Canada Gazette, Part II, on July 6, 2022.

Changes have been made to food labelling requirements in both the Food and Drugs Regulations (FDR) and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR).

• Canada Gazette, Part II: Regulations Amending the Food and Drug Regulations
• Canada Gazette, Part II: Regulations Amending the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations

Overview of changes

The changes to the FDR and SFCR include:

• Repeal of some standard container sizes
• Incorporation by reference of remaining standard container sizes
• Incorporation by reference of class names
• Updated definition of test market food
• Harmonized and streamlined food commodity-specific labelling requirements

Guidance in the Industry Labelling Tool is updated and a summary of changes is available.

Transition period

None of the changes require industry to make changes to their current food labels. As such, no transition period is necessary. There is no change to the level of inspection, what is inspected, how food labels are inspected or the enforcement approach.

CFIA will host webinars

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is organizing webinars to provide an overview of the food labelling changes to industry and other stakeholders.

Questions can also be directed to Ask CFIA.

English session

Date: Tuesday, September 27 from 1:30 pm to 2:30pm (EST)

On the day of the webinar, link to participate in English with MS Teams live.

French session

Date: Wednesday, September 21 from 1:30pm to 2:30pm (EST)

On the day of the webinar, link to participate in French with MS Teams live.

Questions for the webinars can be submitted ahead of time by clicking on the webinar link and entering your question in the questions and answers (Q&A) tab.