Conference 2022 Panel Recap - "McCarthy Tetrault Updates in Canadian Food Law and Policy"
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Angela Lee, Marissa Caldwell, Glenford Jameson, and Amelie Gouin each touched on important updates in Canadian Food Law and Policy.
Angela Lee: Novel Foods Regulation and CRISPR
Lee outlined key changes in novel food regulations. Firstly, she spoke of novel food guidance documents aimed at interpreting what should be considered as a novel food. Plants that do not contain foreign DNA, for example, are exempt from the safety assessments of novel foods. She also shared that notifying Health Canada of gene-edited plants is encouraged but voluntary. Lee stated that the reduced oversight in novel foods could have unforeseen future impacts on the environment, small stakeholders, and the public.
Marissa Caldwell: Single Use Plastics
Caldwell presented the new federal regulations on single use plastics (SUPs) which will impact the manufacture, import, sale, and export of six categories of SUPs: checkout bags, cutlery, food service ware, stir sticks, straws, and ring barriers. Importantly, she outlined that the regulations acknowledge the barriers to accessibility a ban on certain plastics would impose. Care institutions, for instance, can provide straws to their patients without being impacted by the new regulations.
In closing, she touched on how the SUPs have varying coming into force dates. Caldwell recommends that everyone think about how the new regulations will impact them, and in what ways they need to prepare for each coming into force date.
Glenford Jameson: Packaging, Labelling, and Marketing
Jameson highlighted Canada’s recent push to update regulations surrounding front of package labelling, supplement foods, and natural health products. He explained the government’s decision to isolate three ingredients - sugars, sodium, and saturated fats – on front of label packaging to signify what would be considered unhealthy quantities.
Similarly, he explains that supplement foods will require specific caution identifiers as of January 2026 in recognition of their elevated risk for certain members of society. He contends that natural health products, however, have been left behind by food law and policy. But social media has created a new wave of natural health product advertisement that will need to be addressed.
Jameson posts an update on food law and policy on the YouTube channel, G. S. Jameson & Company, and his next update will be released in the next two-weeks.
Link to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLfl2jQccqJc7MZbifZtO6Q/videos?view=0&sort=da
Amelie Gouin: Class Actions Updates
As the final speaker, Gouin presented on numerous class actions in food law. She outlined two trends that have emerged relating to food law class actions: (1) false or misleading representation of products and (2) conspiracies to fix prices and falsely advertise price points to consumers.
In 2020, a case of false representation of a product arose when green olives were blackened to be sold as black olives in Langlais v. Wal-Mart. Later, in 2021, numerous class actions were brought forward against Uber Eats for charging delivery prices higher than what the app had advertised.
Gouin says that class actions in food law have increased since 2020 and we should expect an update on the 2020-2022 cases next year!