Report an incident involving a consumer product or cosmetic: Industry

On this page

• What to report
• How to use the industry reporting form

What to report

If you manufacture, import or sell products in Canada, you must report health or safety incidents involving a consumer product to Health Canada. Manufacturers and importers must also provide more details about the incident and any corrective measures they propose to take with respect to the affected consumer products.

Learn about the requirements for manufacturers, importers and sellers of consumer products:

• “Duties in the event of an incident,” section 14, Canada Consumer Product Safety Act

We also encourage you to voluntarily report health or safety issues involving a cosmetic.

Report the following information:

• Product information
  • product brand and name
  • description of product
  • where you got the product (store or other)
  • age recommendation on the product packaging
  • numbers on the product or product packaging
    • serial number
    • model number
    • Universal Product Code (UPC)
  • date of manufacture or import
  • date the product was purchased
  • address where the product was manufactured or imported from
• Incident information
  • who was injured
  • what was the injury
  • date of the incident
  • description of the incident
  • what type of medical care was received

You may submit an initial incident report before conducting a complete investigation. You will be asked to provide additional information, such as the results of a root cause analysis and a corrective action plan, afterwards.

To report:

• Follow the process set out in section 6 of the industry guide on mandatory reporting for details on how to submit those requests. To learn more about mandatory reporting, watch our video.
• Submit a report using the “submit an industry report” button.

Submit an industry report

Remember to let us know if you have any changes to make concerning your business operations. Communicate these changes when you submit your incident report or contact the appropriate product safety office: 

• Regional product safety offices 

What happens after you submit your report

How to use the industry report form

Saving your form:

You should save your form as an .hcxs file on your computer after you have completed and submitted it. Include the case and submission numbers in the file name to help you easily find your form again. These numbers are created once you click the "Proceed to Submit" button in the form. You may save your incomplete form at any time and upload it later to complete and submit.

Viewing your form:

To view an industry report form saved in the .hcxs format, follow these instructions.

1. Click the following link: Submit an industry report.
2. Scroll down the empty form to the section titled "How to view/edit your previous Incident Report for Industry – Section 12” and follow the instructions.

Maximum file size

If your completed form including attached digital files is larger than 70MB you will see an error message and be unable to submit. If this happens to you, follow these steps:

1. Submit attached digital files up to 70MB on your first form.
2. Note the case number you receive when you submit that form.
3. Go to the "Additional Documents" web form and attach the additional digital files and enter the case number.