April 15, 2020
CFIA Temporarily Relaxes Labelling Requirements for Foodservice Products During COVID-19 Pandemic
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has temporarily suspended some of its low-risk activities.
Low-risk CFIA activities are those that do not immediately impact the production of safe food for Canadians.
Effective immediately, the CFIA is providing flexibility for certain labelling requirements for foodservice packaged products that have no impact on food safety, as detailed below.
Foodservice products are those used by hotels, restaurants and institutions.
This will help to support the economy, alleviate supply disruptions in Canadian grocery stores, and avoid food waste.
Areas of flexibility include:
- Canadian-made, packaged and labelled foodservice products for sale at retail
- Canadian-made, packaged and labelled foodservice products with U.S. labels redirected for sale to Canadian foodservice
- Labelling format
- Language requirements for labelling
- Standard container size requirements
- Requirements for frozen raw breaded chicken products for sale at retail
The notice applies to foodservice food that has already been packaged and labelled. It also applies to foodservice food that is packaged and labelled within 90 days of the publication of this notice. After this time, this measure no longer has effect.