Modernizing Canada's food regulations
The Food Regulatory Innovation Agenda
The Food Regulatory Innovation Agenda consists of three pillars of activity that will help modernize our food regulations. It aims to:
- address issues that affect innovation and growth in the food sector
- improve our ability to anticipate and respond to regulatory needs
On this page
- Why we’re updating Canada’s food regulations
- Our agenda: Three pillars
- Who will benefit from regulatory changes
- How you can get involved
- Contact us
Why we’re updating Canada’s food regulations
At their core, Canada’s food regulations ensure we have one of the safest food supplies in the world. This won’t change.
We‘re always looking ahead to understand any changes or emerging trends in the food sector that may affect how or what we regulate. Our food regulations need to keep pace with changes driven by:
- an increasingly complex global food system
- shifting consumer demands
- environmental changes
- advances in our understanding of science and technology
For example, we must prepare for:
- emerging and new microbiological threats (such as bacteria, viruses, antimicrobial resistance)
- chemical contaminants (such as lead in infant formula, arsenic in rice, micro-plastics in food)
- impacts of climate change (such as bio-toxins in marine animals, increase in toxic algae blooms)
- nutritional safety challenges from innovative ingredients (such as insects, plant-based proteins)
- new food manufacturing techniques such as lab grown meat
- new food additives and packaging materials
- non-traditional ingredients in food
Our agenda: Three pillars
The agenda addresses challenges that our stakeholders have identified over the years, most recently through the Agri-food Economic Strategy Table and Regulatory Review consultations. Our commitments are outlined in the Agri-food and Aquaculture Sector Regulatory Review Roadmap. We’ll collaborate on this work with our federal partners, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Pillar One: Creating modern and agile food regulations
Projects under this pillar focus on ensuring our rules and regulations can be easily updated with the latest advances in science and technology. They will be able to accommodate consumer trends and preferences while maintaining the health and safety of Canadians.
These projects will address the following issues with the current regulations:
- outdated methods of analysis and microbiological criteria
- limited use of expertise, information and findings from other regulators in countries with mature food safety systems
- uncoordinated patchwork of rules that can be hard to understand and follow
Pillar One projects
- Ensure a better response to emerging science
- the aim is to make it easier to update microbiological safety criteria for foods, and use methods of analysis that ensure compliance with food safety and quality requirements
- Explore the use of foreign reviews and joint risk assessments
- the aim is to bring safe, innovative food products, such as infant formula, to market more quickly
- Review and re-design our food regulations
- the aim is to make it easier to follow, use and amend the regulations under the Food and Drugs Act (FDA)
Pillar Two: Introducing new pathways for innovative food
Projects under this pillar focus on ways to bring safe, nutritious, and innovative food products to market that current regulations do not allow.
Pillar Two projects will address the following issues with the current regulations:
- they limit the sale of some foods with added vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and bioactives
- they limit products that meet the nutrition needs of pre-term infants
- they prevent research and innovation in Canada for food for a special dietary purpose
Pillar Two projects
- Introduce new regulations for supplemented foods
- to permit the sale of safe foods that contain added vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbal or bioactive ingredients
- Develop regulatory pathway for human milk fortifiers
- to allow safe new products to improve the health of vulnerable populations (for example, pre-term infants or infants with specific health conditions)
- Permit clinical trials for food for a special dietary purpose
- to enable the sector to generate evidence showing these products are safe and nutritionally adequate
Pillar Three: A better way of communicating with Canadians
Projects under this pillar focus on creating a regulatory environment that is clear, predictable, efficient and transparent. We will do this by improving the way we communicate with Canadians and industry about our rules and processes.
These projects will address the following issues with the current regulations:
- lack of predictability about labelling changes
- lack of clarity about novel food regulations for plant breeding innovators
- lack of clarity about how we apply key rules that state when food cannot be sold (Section 4 of the FDA)
Pillar Three projects
- Improve guidance for plant breeders
- to encourage new developments in the plant breeding sector
- Formalize a joint food labelling coordination strategy
- to provide greater predictability and transparency for industry with respect to food labelling changes
- Provide interpretation of Section 4 of the FDA
- to make clear how the Government applies and uses these foundational food safety rules
Who will benefit from regulatory changes
- Canadians will have:
- access to a broader range of foods with new and innovative ingredients that may improve their health
- access to foods targeted to specific vulnerable populations
- Industry will have:
- a regulatory framework that encourages growth and innovation
- requirements that are aligned with international counterparts, where appropriate
- clarity and predictability in regulatory requirements
- Health stakeholders will have:
- a regulatory system that promotes food safety, innovation, and economic growth that also maintains the integrity of our high scientific standards
How you can get involved
We will consult with Canadians about modernizing our food regulations throughout 2021 and 2022. If you are interested in participating, please sign up to Health Canada’s stakeholder registry and visit our health-related consultations page.
Contact Us
Karen McIntyre
Director General
Food Directorate
Health Products and Food Branch
E-mail: hc.food-aliment.sc@canada.ca