G/TBT/N/CAN/708  
8 November 2023  
(23-7545) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original:  English /French  
 
  
NOTIFICATION  
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6  
 
1. Notifying Member:  CANADA  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):   
2. Agency responsible:   
Health Canada  
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers , email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:   
Canada's Notification Authority a nd Enquiry Point  
Technical Barriers and Regulations Division  
Global Affairs Canada  
111 Sussex Drive  
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G2  
Canada  
Telephone: (343)203 -4273 
Fax: (613)943 -0346 
Email: enquirypoint@international.gc.ca  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [  ], 5.6.2 [  ], 5.7.1 [  ], 3.2 [  ], 7.2 [  ], 
other :  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Food 
products in general (ICS: 67.040)  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Regulations 
Amending Certain Regulations Concerning Food Additives and Compositional Standards, 
Microbiological Criteria and Methods of Analysis for Food  (107 pages, available in English 
and French); (107 page(s), in English), (107 page(s), in French)  
6. Description of content:  The p roposed regulations would amend Part B of the Food and 
Drug Regulations  (FDR), along with targeted amendments to Parts A and D of the FDR. 
In particular, the proposed amendments include introducing modernized frameworks for 
setting, and updating the regula tions for food compositional standards, microbiological 
criteria and methods of analysis, as well as continuing the modernization of the food 
additives framework that was initiated in 2012. Consequential amendments would also 
be made to certain regulations  under the Cannabis Act , Excise Act , 2001, Pest Control 
Products Act , and Safe Food for Canadians Act .  
These regulations were also notified under G/SPS/N/CAN/1537.  G/TBT/N/CAN/708  
 
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  7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable:  The objectives of these proposed amendments are to contribute to making 
the Canadian food regulatory system more agile, transparent and responsive to new and 
emerging science, technology, market innovation and risks to health. This would be 
accomplished by:  
- Enabling administrative updates to food compositional standards in order to reflect 
current market practices, to address changes in consumer demand, to harmonize 
more closely with trading partners, to enable product innovation, and to facilitate 
the inte r-provincial and international trade of foods;  
- Enabling administrative updates to microbiological criteria and associated 
methods of analysis to help ensure that regulatory rules intended to help protect 
the health and safety of Canadians can be updated to reflect the latest science;  
- Enabling industry and regulators to make use of more modern and effective 
methods of analysis to substantiate various chemical, physical and/or nutritional 
requirements for food, allowing regulated parties to keep pace with innovations; 
and 
- Helping to reduce burden on industry by removing duplications of food additive 
references throughout Part B of the FDR and between the tables to section B.16.100 
of the FDR and the current Lists of Permitted Food Additives  incorpora ted by 
reference into the 15 marketing authorizations for food additives, as well as 
consolidating rules pertaining to food additives and simplifying the food additives 
framework.  
8. Relevant documents:   
Canada Gazette, Part I, 4 November 2023, pages 3365 -3471 (available in English and 
French) https://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp -pr/p1/2023/2023 -11-04/pdf/g1 -15744.pdf  
9. Proposed date of adoption:  To be determined  
Proposed date of entry into force:  These proposed Regulations would come into force 
on the day of their publication in the Canada Gazette, Part II.  
10. Final date for comments:  2 February 2024  
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [X] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresses, if available , of other body:   
The electronic version of the regulatory text can be downloaded at:  
https://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp -pr/p1/2023/2023 -11-04/html/reg2 -eng.html  (English)  
https://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp -pr/p1/2023/2023 -11-04/html/reg2 -fra.html  (French)