Natural health product regulation in Canada: Natural health product inspection program
About the natural health product (NHP) inspection program
Companies that manufacture, package, label or import NHPs must:
- hold valid product and site licences
- follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) requirements under Health Canada's Natural Health Products Regulations
Inspections are one of many tools that Health Canada uses as part of our compliance and enforcement approach. The purpose of an NHP inspection program is to assess compliance and prevent non-compliance with GMPs. This helps to ensure that products on the market are safe for people in Canada to use.
Between 2021 and 2022, Health Canada conducted a pilot inspection program to assess whether NHP manufacturers and importers were following regulatory requirements for GMPs. Problems were significant enough at 42% of companies inspected (15 of the 36 inspections) where Health Canada informed companies about potential or immediate suspensions of site or product licences. You can read about why we conducted this pilot program and more about the findings in the evaluation of the pilot NHP GMP inspection program.
The findings of the pilot inspection program reinforce the need for a permanent, proactive, risk-based inspection program to verify compliance with GMPs as part of ensuring that the NHPs sold in Canada are safe, and of high quality.
Health Canada will continue to conduct inspection activities while developing a permanent proactive inspection program.
Learn more about compliance and enforcement of NHPs and other health products.