Archived - About the Food Labelling Modernization initiative

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Objective

The objective of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Food Labelling Modernization initiative is to develop a more modern food labelling system within CFIA's mandate that responds to current and future challenges by engaging stakeholders and linking with other modernization initiatives.

Context

CFIA is continually evolving to meet the challenges of a complex and ever-changing food environment, one that continues to promote food safety, consumer protection and a fair and secure marketplace. As safe as our food supply is, we must always strive for improvement.

In Canada, responsibility for food labelling at the federal level is shared between Health Canada and CFIA:

  • Health Canada is responsible for establishing policies, regulations and standards relating to the health, safety and nutritional quality of food sold in Canada
  • CFIA is responsible for enforcing the policies and regulations that are developed by Health Canada
  • CFIA also administers and enforces non-health and safety policies and regulations

Health Canada is modernizing its food regulatory framework as part of The Regulatory Roadmap for Health Products and Food.

  • It has modernized its food additives regulatory system, using new authorities under the Food and Drugs Act.
  • It published in Canada Gazette, Part II regulatory amendments to improve the format and content of the Nutrition Facts table and ingredient list, and information on sugars and colouring agents.
  • It will make regulations more efficient in other areas, such as food fortification, health/nutrition claims and labelling, and contaminants.

Why modernize food labelling

We have seen a number of changes in the area of food labelling. For example:

  • consumers want to become more informed about the food products they purchase for themselves and their families
  • the food industry continues to be innovative, and adapts in response to market pressures and global trends
  • the government is looking to keep pace with innovation, emerging trends and challenges, by modernizing regulations, policies, and approaches, enhancing service delivery and developing appropriate tools to effectively respond to these

With these changes that are taking place, we recognize the importance to strive for a balance between consumer, industry and government needs.

Key areas

The Food Labelling Modernization initiative focusses on specific areas of food labelling that fall under CFIA's responsibility.

Specifically, this initiative focusses on the following 4 key areas that are important to the foundation of our food labelling system:

  1. roles, responsibilities and partnerships
  2. regulations
  3. policy and program development
  4. service delivery

Guiding principles

The following principles are guiding this initiative:

  • focus on increasing efficiency and becoming more effective
  • align with Health Canada and other CFIA strategic priorities
  • promote and maintain trust and confidence in the government
  • promote consumer protection and compliance in the marketplace
  • ensure harmonization with international trade agreements

Focus

The overall focus of the Food Labelling Modernization initiative is on:

  • all foods, as well as CFIA food labelling frameworks and regulatory, program design and service delivery systems
  • all foods include: imported, domestic, retail; consumer packaged or bulk, further manufacturing

Details of what is in the initiative's focus are in the 2013 Phase I discussion paper. They are broken down according to the initiative's four key areas and include examples.

If we receive comments on other issues that fall outside the focus, we direct such comments to the appropriate organization that holds responsibility for them.

Consultation

CFIA launched the Food Labelling Modernization initiative in 2013 and engaged with stakeholders through a multi-phase consultation approach:

  • Phase I engagement on issues – 2013 to 2014
  • Phase II engagement on options to modernize the food labelling system – 2014 to 2015
  • Phase III engagement on key proposals to modernize the food labelling system – 2016 to 2017

Stemming from those consultations, proposed changes to labelling requirements in the Food and Drug Regulations and Safe Food for Canadians Regulations were pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part I on June 22, 2019. CFIA is consulting on these proposed changes for a 75-day period. The consultation ends on September 4, 2019.

To get a balanced understanding of views, CFIA's consultations have included a wide range of stakeholders, including:

  • consumers and consumer groups
  • industry and industry associations
  • academia
  • CFIA employees
  • other government departments
  • provincial and territorial governments
  • international partners

Additional information

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