Canadian Food Inspection Agency Proposes Changes to the Beer Standard

On June 17, 2017, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) published a Notice of Intent to amend the Food and Drug Regulations to update the beer compositional standard to reflect industry innovation and marketplace realities.

The beer compositional standard sets out ingredient and manufacturing requirements for products labelled, packaged, sold or advertised as beer in Canada.

One of the proposed changes will allow flavouring preparations to be added to beer. The CFIA proposes that the use of flavouring preparations will require mandatory declaration on the label as part of the common name (such as beer with blueberry flavour).

Public and stakeholder consultations were conducted to obtain feedback on the proposed beer standard. A summary of public feedback, including concerns with some of the proposed changes, can be found here. Overall, 74% of survey participants supported modernization of the beer standard. Industry stakeholders, such as Beer Canada and provincial brewer associations have issued letters of support.

The CFIA is currently accepting public comments on the proposed standard, and will distribute an economic survey to stakeholders at the end of July 2017. The proposed amendments to the Food and Drug Regulations are expected to be published in the Canada Gazette by spring 2018.

Summary By: Michelle Noonan