Food Label Requirements and Compliance

Canadian food and beverage products are exported to almost 200 countries, with an estimated value of $54.3 billion in 2022.¹ Key to making the most of these opportunities is understanding, and adhering to, the food labelling regulations of the different countries you’re planning to export to.

When developing a new prepared food product for sale, or looking to export your product to other countries, it’s important to add food labelling to your plan of action. Food label planning isn’t just about the design, it’s about the content, too. Accurate ingredient labels, allergen information, nutritional information, and so on, are a regulatory obligation intended to keep consumers safe and informed.

Around the world, each country has its own unique food labelling laws. Understanding the requirements of each of your chosen markets can be challenging. For example, the terminology used can differ greatly from country to country – even between the US and Canada.

When it comes to food compliance, the onus lies with the food manufacturer and/or importer. They must ensure they comply with the food label regulations of each country they export to. This includes ensuring formulas, including food additives, are compliant for the country of sale and that bilingual requirements are met, including allergen information.

Ensure your compliance by seeking expert advice. At NSF, our consultants can help you navigate food regulations and labelling requirements – and provide official food label translations – of each country you’re exporting to, so you can focus on growing your business.

In Canada, companies will need to abide by requirements set out by Health Canada (HC), and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) among others. Food label requirements and terminology will differ in Canada, U.S., the EU, the UK, and other countries and regions around the world – there’s no one-size-fits-all.

Our expert team can help you get started and guide you through the food labelling requirements and terminology of your target markets. This would include a full label review to ensure you comply with the relevant food regulations.

Depending on the destination country, compliant food label design might include, but not be limited to:

• Legal name – known as statement of identity in the US, and common name in Canada.
• Nutrition information – known as Nutrition Fact Panels (NFP) in the US, and Nutrition Facts tables (NFt) in Canada.
• Ingredient list including allergens.
• Company name and address.
• Country of origin.
• Net quantity statement.
• Storage conditions.

Food and beverage products, including shelf-ready foods such as soups, pastas, pizzas and peanut butter are common exports. When exporting food and beverage products from Canada to another region globally, be advised that you will need to adapt existing labels to comply with food labelling requirements of the new country of sale.

Food label adaptations might include anything from the type of information included to the position of information on packaging, and even the font size. It’s also important to continually monitor countries for regulatory updates and changes, which might require recipes to be reformulated, and labels amended accordingly.

Interpreting changes can be challenging, but our experts can help you to unravel complexities and understand exactly how they apply to your business and what you need to do to ensure you achieve and maintain compliance.

Food labelling management requires knowledge, understanding and dedication, especially if you’re exporting to more than one country.

For example, a recipe that might comply with US food regulations and food labelling requirements might not comply with UK or EU food regulations. Closer to home and even the US and Canada have different food label requirements.

The need to have unique labelling for each country you’re exporting to can be costly. It’s therefore important to factor this in when making business decisions concerning plans for exporting food and beverage products.

The reality is that food labelling regulations are not black and white; there are many grey areas that benefit from expert insight to interpret and understand. Here at NSF, we have a wide pool of experts to draw on who can bring clarity to the grey.

Our food and beverage consulting services can help you achieve and maintain food labelling compliance in all of your markets, new and existing.

At NSF, we offer expert advice to ensure you comply with regulations relevant to your food and beverage products, enabling you to expand your reach and take full advantage of new market opportunities.

Specialist market insight

Our data-driven, market-intelligence solution, powered by an advanced digital tool, coupled with insight from our regulatory experts, will give you actionable information on how to expand successfully. You can also benefit from our regulatory horizon scanning. We’ll provide you with regulatory alerts that highlight how specific regulations are changing and what the change means for you.

Raw material and/or ingredient check and formula compliance

We will check each food raw material for its components and treatments used before confirming whether or not it complies with relevant regulations and can be sold in its intended markets. We’ll also review the recipe breakdown of your product to confirm that its ingredients and percentages comply with its product category.

Claims risk assessment (innovation support)

When innovating new products, our food regulatory experts will identify the risks and opportunities associated with specific food claims, regulated or otherwise. And we’ll interpret existing regulations and – even in the absence of regulations – advise you on how authorities will respond.

Nutritional labelling development and/or checks

Our experts in nutritional consulting will coordinate nutritional analysis testing or create calculated nutritional data based on your formula and raw materials. We can also review nutritional values and provide conversions for different countries.

Pack copy development

Getting pack copy right is essential. We can help you understand and generate the mandatory information for your product label, helping to bridge the gap between specification information and the final label.

Regulatory translations

It’s important that meaning isn’t lost in translation. We offer food label translation services for export, using local expertise to advise you on legislative and linguistic corrections for both mandatory and voluntary text. We also provide multi-language food label design for US products.

Artwork compliance review

Our artwork management services, which include a full label artwork review, will ensure your products are represented correctly and the food label complies with regulations and guidelines in your chosen markets. We will also identify issues and recommend any modifications necessary, such as including healthy claims to meet FDA requirements.

Packaging material regulations

We check your primary and secondary packaging against relevant food packaging regulations, including recyclability and waste disposal logo requirements.

Ad hoc regulatory consulting service

Access our expert regulatory opinion and interpretation as and when you need to.

Restaurant menu development

With allergen concerns growing worldwide, our experts will ensure your restaurant menu complies with regulations around allergens, additives and marketing text. We can also provide analysis to support nutritional information.

Build robust and compliant product launches for long-term success.

Meet regulations worldwide and launch your products with confidence, using NSF’s seamlessly integrated approach.

A trusted and agile extension of your team, we work with you to ensure your product labels and claims are accurate, so consumers can make informed choices, and your products comply with specific regulations.

At NSF we tackle complex regulatory challenges head-on, to support your business goals. We combine real-time monitoring of intricate regulatory changes, deep regulatory expertise in multiple geographies and languages, and bespoke solutions into a unified service that’s uniquely tailored to your needs. As a result, you can mitigate risks, streamline market access, and safeguard your brand reputation both now and in the future.

Source

¹ https://agriculture.canada.ca/...