Ottawa-Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are proposing to modernize the federal Food and Drug Regulations to better enable them to keep food composition standards up to date in a transparent, timely and efficient manner.

Having published a What We Heard report on a consultation with the food sector on proposed regulations for federal food compositional standards, CFIA said it is committed to having clear, agile and responsive regulations as well as modernizing the food standards. Once this process is complete, CFIA said it would be better positioned to review and modernize the standards set out in the Food and Drug Regulations and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.

Food and Consumer Products Canada said that its members support the proposed strategy for modernizing food compositional standards as communicated in a CFIA discussion paper. “We agree that establishing a process to maintain and update the standards in a transparent, timely, and efficient manner is necessary,” said spokesman Anthony Fuchs. “We also provided specific feedback on standards that need to be modified along with rationale.”

The CFIA administers and enforces the non-health and safety policies and regulations for food composition standards and associated labelling requirements. Health Canada is responsible for establishing the policies and regulations related to the health, safety and nutritional quality of food sold in Canada.

CFIA said the feedback received from the consultation will help it determine the volume and complexity of requests for modifications to food standards from stakeholders and estimate how it will respond. It will also help the CFIA manage the requests for changes to food standards after the regulatory amendments to the Food and Drug Regulations are complete.

During the comment period, the CFIA received 67 submissions from consumer groups, industry associations, federal, provincial and territorial government departments, consultants and health professionals. “Overall, respondents welcomed the opportunity to provide feedback and expressed their support for the CFIA's proposed strategy for modernizing food compositional standards.”

The majority of respondents confirmed the need to modernize food compositional standards and said current standards are outdated and, in some cases, not aligned with provincial, territorial or international standards or those of major trading partners. There were also inconsistent requirements found in federal documents.

They said that 436 standards need to be updated along with 23 standards identified previously to the CFIA and 58 standards that should be repealed. Together, these changes would impact a variety of foods, including dairy products, dressings, flavouring preparations, grain-based products, meat and poultry products, mushrooms, oils, plant-based foods, processed fruit products, seasonings, simulated animal protein products, spices, vinegars, white chocolate, and all foods listed in the CFIA document titled Table of Reference Amounts for Food.

For more information, go to https://inspection.canada.ca/en/about-cfia/transparency/consultations-and-engagement/modernizing-food-compositional-standards/what-we-heard

This news item prepared for National Newswatch