Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that they are seeking feedback on the development of voluntary guidance for providing information for foods that are sold to consumers through e-commerce. Although all information provided on e-commerce platforms must be truthful and not misleading, Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations only set out mandatory information for the physical labels of foods.

Those who wish to comment should read the consultation document which proposes that the following principles govern the development of the guidance:

• Provision of the same information that would be provided on a food label [Section 4.1];

• Provision of allergen information (including for foods prepared by a seller, such a take-out foods) [Section 4.2];

• Provision of product images to help consumer recognition [Section 4.3];

• Provision of food information and product images on the product information page, before the purchase is concluded [Section 4.4];

• Indication of how the delivered food will differ from that offered for sale [Section 4.5]; and

• Provision of information through various means intended to allow for easy access and understanding of the information (e.g., provision of information in both English and French and in a manner accessible to screen readers) [Sections 4.6 – 4.11].

The consultation document includes specific consultation questions (see Section 7), including solicitation of feedback on: (1) the above-listed guiding principles and (2) the challenges in obtaining, providing, and/or maintaining information about foods for sale through e-commerce. The comment period is open from May 9 to July 8, 2022. All comments should be emailed to nut.labelling-etiquetage@hc-sc.gc.ca with the subject line “Consultation on Online Food Labeling.” We would be happy to assist in drafting comments.