It’s time to use the modernization of the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) and Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) to embrace opportunities for international alignment.

At the end of December 2024, amendments to FDR were published. These changes to the food regulatory framework aim to modernize compositional standards, microbiological criteria and methods of analysis for foods as well as complete the modernization of the food additive regulatory regime.

The stated goal of these regulatory amendments was to provide a more responsive and adaptable regulatory framework. Using incorporation by reference, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) aims to “update the standards more efficiently to support growth and innovation…”. The impetus being several reviews, including a 2018 Treasury Board review and another specific to agri-food and aqua culture sectors in 2019. These reviews identified regulatory practices and requirements that hindered economic growth and innovation in the agri-food sector.

Modernization continues

Much has changed in the past five years, and modernization efforts must continue to keep pace. Ensuring Canada’s food regulatory framework is agile is increasingly important as e-commerce continues to change the way Canadians access food products. Modernization also presents an opportunity to address regulatory irritants and promote alignment that will improve Canadian companies’ ability to export foods as well as decrease the regulatory burden and associated added costs for imported food. For years regulatory cost benefit analysis has been making erroneous assumptions that additional cost of regulatory burden and red tape would not affect consumers—while increased regulatory burden (including successive labelling requirements) is not the only reason for increases to the price of food in Canada, the cumulative costs are not insignificant.

As an example of an area that could benefit from modernization is Canada’s regulatory regime for food additives and processing aids. In December 2024, Health Canada announced it will discontinue offering letters of no objection (LONOs) for premarket review of food processing aids (and incidental additives). While there is no regulatory requirement to obtain a LONO from Health Canada for food processing aids, these LONOs provided a measure of certainty for suppliers and the supply chain as the Canadian regulations and policies as implemented by Health Canada differ from those of Canada’s major trading partners (e.g. U.S.A.) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The certainty provided by a LONO was helpful to industry given that Health Canada’s policy on processing aids is subject to interpretation and assessed by Health Canada on a case-by-case basis. Accordingly, having a LONO from Health Canada provided a measure of certainty that Health Canada did not object to a supplier’s interpretation.

At a webinar in December 2024, Health Canada explained that the rationale for discontinuing this service with respect to processing aids was budgetary concerns(LONOs are not cost recovered). With the certainty of LONOs no longer available, Health Canada committed that in the coming months it would update its Policy for Differentiating Food Additives and Processing Aids to “better assist industry in self-determining whether a substance is a food additive or food processing aid in a given context of use”.

While improved guidance is helpful, the burden and risk has been shifted entirely to industry now that the relative certainty of a LONO is not available. Perhaps it is time for industry to address the root cause and propose a plan to pursue improved alignment with CODEX and the U.S. with respect to processing aids and food additives. Surely alignment with respect to substances that are used in trace amounts, and in foods consumed safely around the world, is a reasonable goal for regulatory co-operation.

Industry is key to leveraging modernization. Industry’s input on regulatory irritants and opportunities for alignment is key to ensuring that the government can use these efforts to improve Canada’s regulatory framework. In 2025, the stars might be aligned as modernization is on the regulatory agenda for CFIA and Health Canada and the spring is likely to usher in a different government with new opportunities for engagement.

This article originally appeared in Food in Canada and is republished with the permission of the publisher.