How to be CFIA Compliant: A Mini Guide to Navigating the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Distribution is one of the most exciting channels that a small food based business can explore. When I still had the bakeshop I was so enamored with the idea that I could generate sales while accessing so many markets, gaining new clients and building relationships with other businesses large and small.
On the flipside of profitable distribution is the fact that the higher the profile you get, the more attention you attract. In Ottawa especially, small businesses are frequently approached by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as the main offices are here, making it easier for them to access us and our products physically.
While I’m all for obeying the safety standards set by our government and following all the rules and regulations, I need to know exactly what they are. And the CFIA- much like other government organizations, can make that tricky with a lack of clarity, a confusing webpage, lots of bureaucratic jargon, and being notoriously hard to get ahold of.
Thats why I was delighted when one day the social media universe sent me a business angel in the form of Dr. Amy Proulx, the “Friendly Neighbourhood Food Scientist”. Dr. Proulx and I crossed paths in the popular Food and Wine Industry Navigator group when I was desperately looking for someone to help me with a conflict a client of mine was having. A friendship and alliance was quickly stuck up with both of us having a passion for small culinary business support and advocacy.
Before we jump into the main stuff of this important post, I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Amy Proulx, my collaborator and expert on this post. I’ve asked Amy to tell us a little more about herself:
My name is Dr. Amy Proulx. I like to call myself your “Friendly Neighbourhood Food Scientist”. I’m currently Professor of Culinary Innovation and Food Technology and Academic Program Coordinator at Niagara College where I developed a new curriculum and academic strategy in food science and food entrepreneurship back in 2011. I also was the founder of the National Technology Access Centre for Food Innovation at Niagara College, and oversaw much of the research program up until 2018. I now take more of an extension approach, having a lot of informal conversations and helping companies navigate to find excellent technology solutions in a cost effective manner. I’m also the President-Elect for the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology, and one of my key platforms is making food science knowledge more accessible to everyone.
Before I joined Niagara College, I worked in the government system, starting my career as a visiting scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture, then moving to Agriculture and Agrifood Canada as a research chemist. When the Listeria crisis and policy changes occured, I took the leap and went to the CFIA to work on inspection programs, and worked on listeria policy implementation.
In all my work, I’ve noticed that all the fancy and new fangled science isn’t helpful in solving food industry challenges unless we also help people manage the everyday challenges of running their businesses safely and effectively. I left the CFIA and started the programs at Niagara College, really focused on the applications side of food science. This is why I love working with companies on basic problem solving, and one reason I’m a huge fan and supporter of Mandi’s work. She also is totally behind this strategy.
Thank you Dr. - so we’ll hop into our questions now. I've pulled together some of the most popular ones my clients have so we can share this information freely and help others as they are starting out or navigating the CFIA. When is it time to source nutritional information and labels for food products?
Loaded question - the answer is really, “It depends!”
I always recommend that small manufacturers get nutrition facts tables on file, if not on their packaging as soon as they are able to manage the costs of generating the label, and have reasonably stable recipes that don’t change from one lot of production to the next. For many categories of product, consumers value the information found on a nutrition facts table, especially when comparing shopping within a category of product. Usually nutrition facts tables accompany ingredient and allergen declarations, so this trio of information is critical for many people to inform their purchase decisions.
Many small businesses are exempt from nutrition facts table (NFT) requirements, because of the nature of their sales model. If you are selling prepackaged food, generally most of it requires a compliant label with nutrition facts. However small vendors preparing and selling directly to their own customer base through their own storefront, farm stands, mobile food service vending, craft shows, farmers markets and pow wow marketplaces, these small businesses generally are exempted under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations as long as it is the same people both making and selling the product, and as long as the product is only being sold in the province or territory it was prepared in. That said, NFTs are still really valuable pieces of information for informing customer purchase.
There are two main ways of generating these NFT labels: chemical analysis and database generation. In chemical analysis, a random sample of product is sent to a chemical analysis laboratory and a variety of tests are performed to generate the NFT information. This is a somewhat costly procedure, and from a break even cost analysis, it is prohibitive for small businesses, as the cost of analysis runs more than $1000 typically. You need to sell a lot of product, typically tens of thousands of units to reduce that cost into a realistic cost per unit.
Many years ago, the assumption was made that for many products, the sum of the ingredients added together was comparable to running the chemical analysis on a recipe. And database nutrition labelling was started. Database nutrition analysis takes a documented recipe, and takes the constituent ingredients, adding up the nutrition value of each ingredient. Database analysis works really great for recipes that are not overly complicated. And database platforms are becoming more user friendly and cost effective. Some platforms such as Recipal have lower cost of entry, especially for the do-it-yourself labelling option. Personally I use ESHA, which is a slightly more powerful database, and comes with a higher upfront cost. Preparing labels by database is fast, and cost effective. Working with a consultant, typically costs are around $100 per label, and working on your own, can be quite less than that.
I personally encourage using database NFTs as part of the early product development process as well as final label design. Once you start using database software, it becomes quite intuitive, and generating labels may take only a few minutes of time. Having an NFT in front of you when developing new recipes can help factor in the nutritional quality when deciding which products to move forward or which to eliminate.
Database analysis does have its challenges. It does not work on products that experience a major chemical transition during processing. I always say you can’t put grapes into the database and get a wine NFT! Fermentation, deep frying, some forms of dehydration or volume reduction, steeping and filtering a product, smoking or excessive pyrolysis or intentional burning of the food throws off the database values. Certain processes can cause significant gains or losses of nutrient content, and these processes are better evaluated by chemical analysis than by database. There is some value in having an early conversation with a food scientist or labelling specialist to identify which labelling method would be feasible.
The more we talk about NFTs, the more industry insiders realize they are very good generalizations about nutrient content, and not hard and fast truth about the precise nutritional content. The compliance required for nutrition labels depends on the type of food being prepared, for example infant formula or clinical meal replacement products, or if the food has been fortified with vitamins and minerals are treated more strictly. For most products, a variance of plus or minus 20% of the stated value on the NFT is allowable. The compliance allows for large variations because of seasonal variation in nutrient content, moisture content and other variables that impact the nutrition quality. That said, there is still a very important role for the public to understand the nutrition behind the foods they choose.
Thank you so much for clearing that up- things have changed so much, even since I left distribution 5 years ago- So to be clear, what are our responsibilities as food producers to the CFIA?
All Canadian food manufacturers have a role to play in making safe, quality food and work diligently to prevent harm to consumers. No matter what size of company you run or who oversees your inspections, this is absolutely critical. And really, no food company wants to harm their customers. Food is supposed to bring satisfaction, health and delight!
All commercial food manufacturers, whether selling at small informal markets, preparing product for food service, or industrial manufacturers, all food companies have a responsibility to work collaboratively with government services, from public health inspection, provincial or federal regulations and inspection. We’ve seen a positive shift towards a more helping attitude from the government to help food businesses understand their role with regulations. But we also know that the regulatory environment is constantly shifting, so it’s sometimes hard to get clear and fast answers. Folks like Mandi and I are out advocating to the government to make sure we have clear and easy to follow rules and systems to ensure companies can comply without going crazy in the process.
What are restrictions to food labelling and the most common challenges for business owners that you have seen?
The most common challenge I see is companies making health claims on products that can’t be substantiated. For example, there are extensive rules about how you can make a health claim, a disease reduction claim or a nutrient content claim. We’ve been inundated by marketers using and abusing these claims, so it is almost intuitive to just have them roll out when developing marketing materials. You can’t just go out and say this food is a good source of protein, or eating this food will help prevent heart disease or prevent hiccups and enhance your immunity. There are a lot of checks and balances that must be evaluated before claims can be made.
The other common challenge I see is companies unsure how to manage ingredient declarations and allergen declarations. In particular, it is easy to forget labelling components of ingredients. So for example, if I am making a salad dressing and putting soy sauce in the recipe, I need to make sure I’ve captured the ingredients of my soy sauce in the salad dressing. This is done by bracketing out the components within my ingredient. And if I’ve got soy sauce in my recipe, I need to double check the allergen labelling. Allergen declarations from component ingredients move forward onto my final product, so that soy sauce may have wheat included in the allergen listing, so wheat should show on my label’s allergen listing. Small companies often need to make substitutions on ingredients to account for cost and supplier stability, but this can reflect on ingredient and allergen labelling compliance, and could cause a recall of product especially if allergens are not declared properly.
How do we go about sourcing people to generate the nutritional information, weights and design the labels so it’s all up to code?
Everything starts with good record keeping and documentation. Start by weighing out your recipes accurately. Get a decent scale, and weigh all ingredients going in, and all products and waste streams going out. Weigh out what the proper portion of product is. And once you are weighing this all out, document it. You could keep a formulation book, or start a formulation spreadsheet. Once you have weights of ingredients, you can use this for generating NFTs. Having this kind of record also allows you to start doing the cost of goods, as you can calculate the cost of each ingredient by weight. Having documented formulations can help you scale up formulations easier. Documentation also helps show where labour is being used, and can help calculate labour and overhead costs, and identify constraints in the manufacturing process.
As for designing the labels. Yes, people do put together their own label designs, and print their own labels. However most food companies provide the required technical information from the CFIA compliance checklist to a label design consultant, who would specialize in label design, compliance and label printing. There are lots of labelling consultants out there, my google search found dozens of designers and consultants across Canada.
How does a business owner go about getting guidance so they have confirmation that they are CFIA compliant?
First, always try to work with the inspection service that is overseeing your work. That said, it is not uncommon to get vague and general answers. Inspectors and regulators have accountability standards. So if an inspector comes in and says something like “The regulations state you require a nutrition facts table” you are always within your right to say, “Can you show me the exact clause in the regulations, and help me clarify any business or product 9+exemptions.” You are always within your right to ask for direct clarification, and ask for the inspector to show exactly where in the regulations the requirements are listed. Responding in this way shows you are proactive. And there are plenty of cases where food inspectors come in and throw around a lot of compliance requirements but can’t actually back the compliance requirements up with regulatory clauses. Get that phrase in your head. Rather than getting angry or frustrated, say “Show me in the regulations please!” and if they can’t, then you are immediately within your right to go to their manager and get clarification.
I’ve been really encouraged by the expansion of the Technology Access Centres for food and beverage innovation across Canada. I totally encourage food businesses to connect with their local TAC, and ask a lot of questions about labelling regulations and other technology innovation services. In general, these centres have food scientists who can help redirect companies to the right resources, and often have teams internally who can do this work with the company. Sometimes there are even funding programs or economic development vouchers available to help offset costs to the company for making regulatory compliance improvements.
Can you tell us some stories about successes and failures you’ve seen with the CFIA and small businesses?
Historically the CFIA was focused on regulation only, providing minimal counselling to the establishments that it regulated. In countries such as the United States, there historically have been extension and knowledge transfer divisions within the regulating agencies such as the United States Department of Agriculture. These extension divisions provided the educational outreach to industry to encourage and facilitate regulatory compliance.
It’s unfortunate that many small companies, and even folks like me advocating for small companies, will get bounced back and forth by government agents for weeks or months at a time when asking basic questions. Good food industry development balances scientific research with technology development and applications work, all centred around knowledge transfer. And this needs to respond at a speed relevant to the business sector that is applying it.
We recently completed a research project on small food business interactions with government regulators. Reach out to me directly to find out more about this project.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Keep asking good questions -Mandi is the best!
Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your knowledge today Dr. Amy Proulx - this is going to be so helpful going forward to so many folks. To my readers: please bookmark this article for future reference. Save Dr. Proulx’s email address in case you require assistance. Together we can make Canada a more delicious place!
Join me next week for my new series on the last Sunday of each month: Ask Mandi, where I take questions directly from my readers.
On Sunday July 26 we’ll be talking about the effectiveness and sourcing of Influencer Based Marketing, as requested by reader Chris’s Ice Cream.
Do you have a question for August’s Ask Mandi? Email me: yum@foodbusinesscoach.com