What Your Food Label Must Change to Sell in Canada

Here is a mistake that costs people real money: assuming a US-compliant food label just needs a French translation to work in Canada.

The actual list of differences is longer than that. The regulatory framework is different. The Nutrition Facts table format is different. The allergen list has two additional entries that do not exist in the US system. And as of January 1, 2026, many prepackaged foods now require a front-of-package nutrition symbol on their principal display panel.

None of this means Canada is impossible to enter. It means Canada is a second label program, not a minor extension of the first one. Brands that sort this out before artwork is approved save a reprint. Brands that discover it at review usually do not.

Here is what changes.

The Regulatory Framework Is Not FDA

In the US, the FDA governs most food labels under 21 CFR Part 101 and related subparts. Canada works through three overlapping pieces of legislation that together cover what FDA covers alone.

The Food and Drugs Act and its subordinate Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) govern nutrition labeling, food composition, and health claims. The Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA) and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) govern food safety, mandatory labeling requirements, and allergen declarations for most prepackaged foods. The Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act (CPLA) and its regulations govern net quantity declarations, product identity, and bilingual requirements on consumer prepackaged goods.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) enforces all of it.

When building a Canadian label, all three frameworks apply simultaneously. The FDR shapes the Nutrition Facts table. The SFCR governs allergen declarations. The CPLA covers net quantity and the common name. A label that satisfies one may still fail another.

Everything Mandatory Must Appear in Both English and French

This is the most visible difference for a US brand and the one that creates the most layout disruption.

Under Canadian law, all mandatory label information must appear in both of Canada’s official languages with equal prominence. That includes the common name of the food, the net quantity declaration, the complete ingredient list, the allergen statement, and the Nutrition Facts table.

The bilingual Nutrition Facts table carries the heading “Nutrition Facts / Valeur nutritive” with French and English integrated into a single panel. Manufacturers can use any of CFIA’s approved bilingual formats, but all of them combine both languages within the one table.

The one exception: the name and principal place of business of the manufacturer or importer may appear in either English or French alone.

This means a US brand cannot apply a sticker with French translations to its existing label. The layout of the entire label changes. Every mandatory element needs new placement, and the bilingual Nutrition Facts table is a completely different file from the FDA panel.

The Canadian Nutrition Facts Table Is Not the FDA Panel

The format is different. Some required nutrients differ. The daily values do not match exactly.

Canada’s Nutrition Facts table (NFt) is governed by sections B.01.401 through B.01.406 of the Food and Drug Regulations. Several details diverge from the FDA version:

The Canadian NFt does not require a “Servings per container” declaration, which is mandatory in the US. The daily value for total fat in Canada is 75 g; in the US it is 78 g. Small differences like that affect the %DV calculation on every fat-containing product. Formatting conventions differ in ways that matter at review: Canadian labels place a space between a number and its unit (“10 g”), US labels do not (“10g”). Canada’s reference amounts for certain food categories also differ from FDA’s RACC values, which can change how the serving size declaration reads on the finished label.

Added sugars are now required in the Canadian NFt as well, so the gap between the two panels has narrowed in that respect. But the panels are still different documents that need to be built from their respective regulatory frameworks.

Health Canada updated its Table of Reference Amounts for Food in October 2024, with an industry implementation deadline of December 31, 2027. If you are building a Canadian label now, confirm which reference amounts apply to your product category under the current and incoming versions.

The Allergen List Has Two Entries the US Does Not Require

The US has nine major allergens under FALCPA and the FASTER Act: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame.

Canada’s list goes further. Health Canada identifies eleven priority allergens and sensitivities: peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans and molluscs, soy, wheat or triticale, mustard, and sulphites.

Mustard was formally recognized as a priority allergen in Canada following a systematic scientific review. Sulphites are a food additive rather than a true allergen, but sulphite-sensitive individuals can experience severe reactions, so they must be declared on any product where sulphites are present at concentrations of 10 parts per million or more. Required source names include sulphur dioxide, sodium sulphite, sodium bisulphite, potassium bisulphite, sodium metabisulphite, and potassium metabisulphite.

Canada also requires declaration of gluten sources as a separate labeling requirement, independent of the allergen statement. The gluten sources that must be identified are: barley, oats, rye, triticale, and wheat.

The Canadian “Contains” statement must be bilingual: “Contains: Mustard, Milk / Contient : Moutarde, Lait.”

A product with a Dijon mustard-based sauce needs mustard declared for Canada. A product with a wine reduction stabilized with potassium metabisulphite needs the sulphite declaration. Neither of those is a US requirement. If your ingredient supplier list includes any mustard derivative or any wine, vinegar, or dried fruit that may have been treated with sulphites, those need to be verified before the Canadian label is finalized.

Canada Now Requires a Front-of-Package Nutrition Symbol

This is the newest requirement and the one most likely to catch a US brand off guard.

As of January 1, 2026, most prepackaged foods sold in Canada that are high in saturated fat, sugars, or sodium must display a front-of-package nutrition symbol on the principal display panel. CFIA began inspections against this requirement from that date.

The symbol is black and white and uses a magnifying glass design. It displays “High in / Élevé en” followed by the applicable nutrient or combination of nutrients, with “Health Canada / Santé Canada” at the bottom.

The thresholds that trigger the symbol:

• For most prepackaged foods: 15% DV or more of saturated fat, sugars, or sodium per serving.
• For small-portion products with a serving size of 30 g or 30 mL or less: 10% DV or more.
• For main dish products with a serving size of 200 g or more: 30% DV or more.

A product high in all three nutrients needs the symbol to reflect all three.

Some categories are exempt. Raw single-ingredient meats and poultry, whole or minimally processed fresh fruits and vegetables without added sodium, sugars, or saturated fat, raw seafood where less than 30% of total fat is saturated fat, and certain fermented products including yogurt, cheese, and kefir are among those excluded.

For a US brand crossing into Canada, this requires evaluating every SKU against these thresholds before the label is designed. A product that passes FDA’s nutrient content claim requirements might still trigger the Canadian FOP symbol. The two systems are separate. One does not predict the other.

Net Quantity Declarations Lead with Metric

In the US, net quantity appears on the principal display panel in US customary units (ounces, fluid ounces, pounds), with metric as an optional addition. In Canada, the system is reversed.

Under the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, net quantity on consumer prepackaged food must be declared in metric units on the principal display panel: grams or kilograms for solids, millilitres or litres for liquids. Canadian units of measure such as ounces may be added, but they must follow the metric declaration and appear together with it, with no intervening material between the two.

A US label reading “NET WT 8 oz (227 g)” becomes “227 g / 8 oz” on the Canadian label. The metric leads. Type size requirements for the net quantity declaration are also prescribed under the CPLA regulations, based on the available display surface of the label.

What This Means in Practice

A US food label and a Canadian food label are two different documents. They share some structure, including the ingredient list in descending order by weight and the basic allergen disclosure format. But the language requirements, the NFt layout, the allergen entries, the potential FOP symbol, and the net quantity presentation are all different.

The expensive moment is when this gets discovered after artwork is approved. A label correction at that stage costs reprint runs, retailer deadline misses, and the kind of timeline compression that makes every subsequent decision worse.

Planning both markets from the start, before the first round of label design, is what keeps the project on track. If you are bringing a product into Canada and want to understand exactly what your current label needs to become, book a free call to start.