Food service labelling Flashcards
What is food labelling about?
Informing and protecting the public about the foods they buy
What is codex alimentarius?
International standrads established by WHO and FAO to protect the consumer and ensure fair practices in food trade
- Food safety and quality
- 188 member countries, canada signed in 1963
Why are the codex standard good for?
- Codex standards serve in many cases as a basis for national legislation
- Reference in World trade organization trade disputes
What is food labelling in canada governed by?
- Regulations defining the application and enforcement of the law
- Acts (broad laws)
What are the major association and the major Acts and Regulations related to food labelling?
Associations:
- Government of Canada
- CFIA- canadian food inspection agency
Acts and regulations:
- Food and drug act and regulations
- Canada agricultural products A&R
- Consumer packaging and labelling A&R
- Fish inspection A&R
- Meat inspection A&R
Which acts will soon be replace by what name of act and regulations?
- Canada Agricultural products
- Consumer packaging and labelling
- Fish inspection
- Meat inspection
Will soon be replaced by Safe food for Canadians act and regulations
What are the regulations defining the agricultural products act in Canada?
- Dairy products
- Egg
- Fresh F&V
- Honey
- Icewine
- Licensing and arbitration
- Livestock and poultry carcass grading
- Organic products
- Maple products
- Processed egg
- Processed products
What are 2 provincial organization that have their own acts and regulations about food labelling in Quebec?
- MAPAQ (regulations respecting food, regulations respecting bottled water)
- Office de la langue française (regulations respecting language of commerce and business)
What are mandatory label elements?
- Identity and principal place of business
- List of ingredients and allergens
- Nutrition facts table
- Product common name
- Net quantity
- Country of origin
- Durable life date and storage instructions
What are other mandatory elements for certain food products?
- Country of origin
- Grade name
- Apple/pear variety
- Articicial sweeteners added
- % m.f. and moisture in cheese
- % meat protein
- etc.
What are voluntary elements? on food labels
- Nutrient-content or health claims
- Other value-added claims (natural, organic, kosher etc.)
- Highlighing of ingredients and flavours (through words or image)
- Number of servings per container
What are regulations about the name of a product?
- Name should adequately reprensent the product
- Should consisit of the standardized name established by regulations ( chocolate, juice , extract…)
- Or in absence of standards, the name which the food is commonly known, when no standards have been prescribed
- Name should not be misleading
- Shown on principal display pannel in characters of at least 1,6mm in height
What are key elements requiring food standards?
- Source
- Composition
- Appearance
- Freshness
- Permissible additives
- Maximum bacterial content
What are requirements for the net quantity of food items?
- The net quantity should be within prescribed tolerances
- On the principal display panel
- In metric
- In bold characters and in type size related to the dimensions of the packaging
- Rounded to 3 figures
- Any final zero to the right f the decimal point is not required to be shown
What are net requirements of the durable life date?
- Required on products which durable life is 90 days or less
- Must be preceded by words “best before/meilleur avant”
- Must be shown in characters of at least 1.6mm in height
What are requirements for company name and address?
- Should be complete enough for delivery within a reasonable delay
- Must be shown in characters of at least 1.6mm in height
What are requirements of the list of ingredients and allergens?
Ingredients must be declared:
- In descending order of their proportion or as a percentage of the prepackaged product
- Using the proper nomenclature (standardize or common name)
- Components of ingredients must be shown in parentheses, immediately after ingredients pr in descending order of their proportion of the ingredient determined before components are combined to form the ingredients
What are new aspects of list of ingredients and allergens, and until when does the food industry has to comply?
- Back front upper and lower case
- Grouping of sugars-based ingredients
- Bullets or commas to separate ingredients
- Minimum type height requirements
- Title “ingredients and “contains” in bold
- Food colors by name
- White or neutral background
What are the priority allergens that must be declared when present in a food product?
- Milk
- Egg
- Peanuts and treenuts
- Fish
- Shellfish
- Crustaceans
- Sesmae
- Wheat
- Gluten source
- Soy
- Sulfites
- Mustard