Food Allergies - New Labelling Requirements for Foods: Regulations to Enhance the Labelling of Food Allergens, Gluten Sources and Added Sulphites

Food Allergies and Labelling

Food allergies and intolerances are ongoing public health problems that continue to challenge the health care sector, the food industry and the Canadian public. An allergic individual who consumes an allergen such as peanuts may have a reaction that can develop quickly and may rapidly progress from a mild to severe reaction, such as anaphylactic shock or even death. For those suffering from celiac disease, prolonged consumption of gluten could lead to long-term health complications, with the only current treatment being the maintenance of a strict gluten-free diet.

Although the Food and Drug Regulations (the Regulations) require that a complete and accurate list of ingredients appear on the label of most prepackaged foods, they currently exempt certain ingredients from component declaration. For example, when flavours, flour, seasoning and margarine are used as ingredients in other foods, their components do not have to be included in the list of ingredients. In addition, the name used to declare an ingredient’s presence in a food may make it difficult to determine if the food should be avoided (e.g. ovalbumin for egg derivatives, casein for milk ingredients...). As a result, food allergens, gluten sources and added sulphites can be “hidden” from consumers trying to identify them in the list of ingredients.

Health Canada recognizes that persons with food allergies and intolerances can face a life-long health challenge in avoiding specific foods and ingredients and has proposed changes to the Food and Drug Regulations to enhance labelling requirements for those food ingredients that may cause adverse reactions.

Proposed New Labelling Requirements

The new Food and Drug Regulations will require that the following foods be declared on food labels whenever they or their protein derivatives are added to prepackaged foods having a list of ingredients, whether they are added as ingredients, or as components of ingredients.

1) Food allergens, meaning any protein from any of the following foods or any modified protein, including any protein fraction, that is derived from any of the following foods:

1. almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios or walnuts;
2. peanuts;
3. sesame seeds;
4. wheat, kamut, spelt or triticale;
5. eggs;
6. milk;
7. soybeans;
8. crustaceans;
9. shellfish; or
10. fish.

2) The gluten source when the food contains any gluten protein from the grain of any of the following cereals or the grain of a hybridized strain produced from at least one of the following cereals: barley, oats, rye, triticale or wheat, including kamut or spelt.

3) Sulphites, when either directly added to a food or when the total amount of sulphites present in the food is 10 parts per million or more.

The proposed regulations will also require that the list of ingredients identify the specific sources of hydrolysed plant proteins, starches and modified starches, and lecithins.

Manufacturers will have to declare food allergens and gluten sources by name either in the list of ingredients or at the end of the list of ingredients in a statement called “Allergy and Intolerance Information - Contains: . . . ’’. It will be mandatory to use this statement to declare added sulphites when the concentration in the final product is equal or higher than 10 ppm.

When the statement: “Allergy and Intolerance Information - Contains: . . . ’’ , it will also need to list the food allergen, gluten sources and added sulphites (at 10 ppm and above) in the food, whether allergens and gluten sources have already been declared in the ingredients list or not.

Timelines and enforcement

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will provide guidelines to assist manufacturers and importers in preparing appropriate food labels to comply with the new regulations. The CFIA will monitor compliance through their ongoing domestic and import inspection programs.

Once the final regulations are published in the Canada Gazette Part II, manufacturers and importers will have one year to adopt the new labelling changes. In this adjustment period, Health Canada and the CFIA urge food manufacturers and importers to follow Health Canada's recommendations for labelling prepackaged foods containing priority allergens, gluten sources and added sulphites.

Information updates on the regulatory amendments will be made available on the Food Allergen Labelling Page .

For information on Food Allergies see the Food Allergies and Intolerances webpage.