Food and Drug Regulations (C.R.C., c. 870)

B.01.010.4 (1) If the label of a prepackaged product includes a declaration alerting consumers that, due to a risk of cross-contamination, the product may contain the source of a food allergen or gluten,

• (a) the declaration must appear immediately after

  • (i) the food allergen source, gluten source and added sulphites statement, if there is one,

  • (ii) any statement referred to in subsection B.01.014(1), if no food allergen source, gluten source and added sulphites statement appears on the label, or

  • (iii) the list of ingredients, if neither of the statements referred to in subparagraph (ii) appears on the label;

• (b) the declaration must appear in both English and French if the statement or list immediately preceding it appears in both languages;

• (c) the declaration must appear on the same continuous surface as the statement or list that immediately precedes it and be shown in the same manner as the list of ingredients is shown under subsection B.01.008.2(2);

• (d) the declaration must appear without any intervening printed, written or graphic material between it and the statement or list that immediately precedes it, except that a solid line may appear before the declaration if the declaration begins on a different line than the line on which the statement or list ends;

• (e) the declaration must be shown in bold type if it begins on the line on which the statement or list that immediately precedes it ends and if it is not introduced by a title;

• (f) any title that introduces the declaration must be shown in bold type if the declaration begins on the line on which the statement or list that immediately precedes it ends; and

• (g) if the declaration is preceded by a statement referred to in subsection B.01.014(1) and begins on the line on which the statement ends, the title of the declaration — or the declaration itself, if no title appears — must be shown in a type that is of a height that is at least 0.2 mm greater than the height of the type used in the statement.

(2) If the English and French versions of the declaration appear on the same continuous surface of the label, the version that follows the other version must not begin on the line on which the other version ends unless the prepackaged product has an available display surface of less than 100 cm².

B.01.011 (1) Where it is an acceptable manufacturing practice for a manufacturer to

• (a) omit from his prepackaged product any food that is ordinarily an ingredient or component, or

• (b) substitute in whole or in part in his prepackaged product any other food for a food that is ordinarily an ingredient or component,

the list of ingredients for the 12-month period commencing from the time the label is applied to the prepackaged product may show as ingredients or components the foods that may be omitted and the foods that may be used as substitutes if

• (c) all the foods that may be used as ingredients or components throughout the 12-month period are shown in the list of ingredients;

• (d) it is clearly stated as part of the list of ingredients that the food shown as an ingredient or component may not be present or that another food may be substituted for a food shown as an ingredient or component; and

• (e) the foods that may be omitted or substituted are grouped with the same class of foods that are used as ingredients or components and the foods within each such group are listed in descending order of the proportion by weight in which they will probably be used during the 12-month period.

(2) Where it is an acceptable manufacturing practice for a manufacturer to vary the proportions of ingredients or components of his prepackaged product, the list of ingredients for the 12-month period commencing from the time the label is applied to the prepackaged product may show the ingredients or components in the same proportions throughout the 12-month period if

• (a) it is clearly stated as part of the list of ingredients that the proportions indicated are subject to change; and

• (b) the ingredients or components are listed in descending order of the proportion by weight in which they will probably be used during the 12-month period.

B.01.012 (1) In this section,

local government unit

local government unit means a city, metropolitan government area, town, village, municipality or other area of local government but does not include any local government unit situated within a bilingual district established under the Official Languages Act; (collectivité locale)

local food

local food means a food that is manufactured, processed, produced or packaged in a local government unit and sold only in

• (a) the local government unit in which it is manufactured, processed or packaged,

• (b) one or more local government units that are immediately adjacent to the one in which it is manufactured, processed, produced or packaged, or

• (c) the local government unit in which it is manufactured, processed, produced or packaged and in one or more local government units that are immediately adjacent to the one in which it is manufactured, processed, produced or packaged; (produit alimentaire local)

mother tongue

mother tongue means the language first learned in childhood by persons in any area of Canada and still understood by them as ascertained by the decennial census taken immediately preceding the date on which the food referred to in subsection (3) is sold to the consumer; (langue maternelle)

official languages

official languages means the English language and the French language; (langues officielles)

specialty food

specialty food means a food — other than a human milk fortifier or supplemented food — that

• (a) has special religious significance and is used in religious ceremonies; or

• (b) is an imported food

  • (i) that is not widely used by the population as a whole in Canada, and

  • (ii) for which there is no readily available substitute that is manufactured, processed, produced or packaged in Canada and that is generally accepted as being a comparable substitute; (aliment spécial)

test market food

test market food means a food that, prior to the date of the notice of intention respecting that food referred to in subsection (5), was not sold in Canada in that form and that differs substantially from any other food sold in Canada with respect to its composition, function, state or packaging form and includes a food referred to in section B.01.054. (produit alimentaire d’essai)

(2) Subject to subsections (9), (10) and (11), all information required by these Regulations to be shown on the label of a food shall be shown in both official languages.

(3) Subject to subsections (4) to (6), subsection (2) does not apply to a local food or test market food if

• (a) it is sold in a local government unit in which one of the official languages is the mother tongue of less than 10 per cent of the total number of persons residing in the local government unit; and

• (b) the information required by these Regulations to be shown on the label of a food is shown in the official language that is the mother tongue of at least 10 per cent of the total number of persons residing in the local government unit.

(4) Where one of the official languages is the mother tongue of less than 10 per cent of the total number of persons residing in a local government unit and the other official language is the mother tongue of less than 10 per cent of the total number of persons residing in the same local government unit, subsection (3) does not apply.

(5) Subsection (3) does not apply to a test market food unless the person who intends to conduct the test marketing of the food has, six weeks prior to conducting the test marketing, filed with the President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency a notice of intention in a form acceptable to the President.

(6) A test market food shall, for the purposes of subsection (3), cease to be a test market food upon the expiration of 12 cumulative months after the date on which it was first offered for sale as a test market food but any test market food that was acquired for resale by a person, other than the person who filed the notice of intention referred to in subsection (5), before the expiration of those 12 cumulative months, shall continue to be a test market food for the purposes of subsection (3) until it is sold.

(7) Subsection (2) does not apply to a specialty food if the information required by these Regulations to be shown on the label thereon is shown in one of the official languages.

(8) Where there are one or more surfaces on the label of a food that are of at least the same size and prominence as the principal display panel, the information required by these Regulations to be shown on the principal display panel may be shown in one official language if such information is shown in the other official language on one of those other surfaces.

(9) Subsection (2) does not apply to the identity and principal place of business of the person by or for whom the food was manufactured, processed, produced or packaged for resale if this information is shown in one of the official languages.

(10) Subsection (2) does not apply to the following common names if the common name appears on the principal display panel in the following manner:

(11) Subsection (2) does not apply to the label of a shipping container destined to a commercial or industrial enterprise or an institution, if

• (a) the shipping container and its contents are not resold as a one unit prepackaged product to a consumer at the retail level; and

• (b) all information required by these Regulations to be shown on a label of a food is shown in one of the official languages.

B.01.013 (1) Unless specifically required by the Act or these Regulations, no reference, direct or indirect, to the Act or to these Regulations shall be made on any label of, or in any advertisement for, a food.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), where a food complies with a standard established by these Regulations and the manufacturer of the food has substantiated, by means of the results of tests carried out before the statement is made or by other evidence that exists before the statement is made, that the food so complies, a statement that the food “complies with the standard for (naming the common name of the food in respect of which the claim is made) in the Food and Drug Regulations” may be made on the label of, or in an advertisement for, the food.

B.01.014 (1) The label of a food that contains aspartame must carry a statement warning individuals with phenylketonuria that the food contains phenylalanine or a statement to the effect that aspartame contains phenylalanine.

(2) The statement must

• (a) be shown in bold type;

• (b) appear, in respect of each linguistic version, immediately after the list of ingredients appearing in the same language, either on the same line as the last ingredient in the list or on the following line, without any intervening printed, written or graphic material; and

• (c) appear on the same continuous surface as the list of ingredients and be shown in the same manner as that list is shown under subsection B.01.008.2(2).