Amendments to the Food and Drug Regulations Related to Nutrition Labelling, List of Ingredients and Food Colours

On December 14, 2016, amendments to nutrition labelling, list of ingredients and food colour requirements of the Food and Drug Regulations (Regulations) came into force. These new requirements will make the labelling information on prepackaged food products more useful and easier to read for Canadians, and also aim to achieve efficiencies by removing the requirement for lot certification of food colours.

Regulated parties have a five (5) year transition period to meet the new requirements. However, amendments dealing with food colour specifications and removal of the synthetic colour certification requirement are effective immediately. Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have developed an implementation plan for the transition period that includes three (3) phases.

While the Regulations were amended by Health Canada, the CFIA is responsible for their enforcement. Information on compliance and enforcement can be found on our FAQ page.

Health Canada and the CFIA share the responsibility for answering inquiries on the new Regulations. Questions on the new requirements and their intent must be submitted to Health Canada at nut.labelling-etiquetage@hc-sc.gc.ca, while those dealing with compliance and enforcement activities must be submitted to local CFIA offices.

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