Regulation Of Food-Contact Materials In Canada

Safety doesn’t stop at the border.

Canada and the United States have many things in common: our love for hockey; an affinity for maple syrup; and a shared commitment to the health and safety of our citizens when it comes to food packaging materials, just to name a few. …OK, maybe that third one didn’t come immediately to mind! 

Canada has a sophisticated and well-established system for the regulation and assessment of food-contact materials and articles. In contrast with many of the "mandatory" jurisdictions around the world, however – where regulated substances must be the subject of a regulation; must appear in a positive list; or must be the subject of an applicable exemption or exception – Canada relies, instead, on a combination of certain threshold safety requirements, and a largely "voluntary" process whereby primary responsibility is placed on industry to ensure that materials and articles are safe, suitable, and otherwise appropriate for their intended use from a