What Canadian Food Manufacturers Need to Know About Bilingual Labelling Under SFCR

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

If you sell pre-packaged food in Canada, every mandatory label element must appear in both English and French. Federal law requires it. It applies in every province, not just Quebec.

The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR, section 206) and the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR, section B.01.012) set out what must be bilingual on food labels sold anywhere in Canada. The Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act does not apply to food (CPLA s.3(3)). CFIA enforces these requirements through its inspections.

In my experience reviewing how manufacturers handle label compliance, bilingual requirements create more preventable CFIA findings than almost any other area. The fix is straightforward once you know what inspectors check.

What Must Appear in Both English and French

Under FDR B.01.012 and SFCR s.206, the following elements must appear in both official languages on pre-packaged food sold in Canada, unless an exemption below applies:

Product identity:

• Common name of the food (e.g., “Tomato Sauce / Sauce tomate”)
• Net quantity declaration (the numerical value can appear in one language, but the unit descriptor must use bilingual text or metric symbols)

Ingredient and allergen information:

• Complete ingredient list, in descending order by proportion
• All priority allergen, gluten source and added sulphite declarations (see next section)
• Component ingredients within composite ingredients
• Food colour and flavour declarations

Nutrition information:

• Nutrition Facts table headers, footnotes and descriptors
• Front-of-package (FOP) nutrition symbol, where one is required (mandatory since January 1, 2026)

Other mandatory elements:

• Storage instructions (“Keep refrigerated / Garder réfrigéré”)
• Preparation instructions if safe consumption depends on them
• Durable life date declarations (best before / meilleur avant)

The name and principal place of business of the manufacturer, dealer or importer can appear in either English or French. It does not need to be bilingual.

What Does Not Need to Be Bilingual

Not every element on your label requires French translation:

• Brand names and trademarks remain in their registered form under the federal rules
• Numerical values in the Nutrition Facts table (calories, grams, percentages)
• Test market products under limited exemptions
• Certain exemptions exist for local products, test market products, specialty products and shipping containers. Packages with a small available display surface have reduced Nutrition Facts table requirements, though allergen declarations still apply

These are the federal rules. CFIA’s bilingual labelling page notes that Quebec has additional French-language requirements and points to the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) for them. If you sell in Quebec, check your full label against those rules too, trademarks included.

Some manufacturers treat a “mostly bilingual” label as compliant. Leaving one element untranslated on an otherwise bilingual label still counts as non-compliance during a CFIA inspection.

Priority Allergens, Gluten Sources and Sulphites: Both Languages Required

The Food and Drug Regulations (B.01.010.1) require priority food allergens, gluten sources and added sulphites to be declared on pre-packaged food labels when present. Like all mandatory label information, these declarations must appear in English and French.

Canada’s 11 priority food allergens:

1. Eggs / Oeufs
2. Milk / Lait
3. Mustard / Moutarde
4. Peanuts / Arachides
5. Crustaceans / Crustacés
6. Molluscs / Mollusques
7. Fish / Poisson
8. Sesame seeds / Graines de sésame
9. Soy / Soja
10. Tree nuts / Noix
11. Wheat and triticale / Blé et triticale

Two more declarations are required alongside that list:

• Gluten sources: Barley, oats, rye, triticale and wheat (orge, avoine, seigle, triticale, blé).
• Added sulphites / Sulfites: Declared when added sulphites total 10 ppm or more. Sulphites are a sensitivity rather than an allergen, so the regulations treat them as a separate category.

Canada requires declaration of 11 priority food allergens plus gluten sources and added sulphites. The US FDA lists 9 major food allergens. Canada also requires mustard, molluscs and the gluten sources barley, oats and rye to be declared. None of these is on the FDA’s list, which covers crustacean shellfish only, not molluscs. Sulphites are not one of the FDA’s 9, but US rules also require sulphites at 10 ppm or more to be declared, so they are not a difference for a label sold in both countries. If you export to both markets, your labels need to handle both lists. That often means maintaining separate label versions or building a label template that covers both lists combined.

Sesame now appears in both countries’ lists, but Canada added it years before the US (the FASTER Act took effect in January 2023).

Front-of-Package Nutrition Symbol

The front-of-package (FOP) nutrition symbol became mandatory on January 1, 2026. Health Canada set the rules in the Food and Drug Regulations. CFIA enforces them. Products high in saturated fat, sugars or sodium must display the FOP symbol.

The symbol must match one of the formats in Schedule K.1 of the FDR, with no changes. You show it either as one bilingual symbol or as separate English and French symbols. On some smaller packages (a principal display surface of 450 cm² or less), the vertical formats apply instead. A single-language symbol is allowed only where the rest of the required label information may legally appear in one language.

Manufacturers reformulating products to avoid triggering the FOP threshold should verify that their reformulated Nutrition Facts tables still meet bilingual formatting requirements.

Common Bilingual Labelling Gaps

These bilingual gaps are frequent and avoidable:

Incomplete French allergen declarations: The English label lists all allergens correctly. The French translation misses one or uses an incorrect source name. Allergen lists change when formulations change. Teams do not always update the French version at the same time.

Incorrect French terminology: Machine translation or unchecked contractor translations can produce inaccurate French terms. The French text of the Food and Drug Regulations and CFIA’s allergen guidance set the allergen source names to use. If your translator uses a different French term, check it against those before printing.

Missing French storage instructions: “Keep frozen” appears in English. The French equivalent does not appear on the label.

FOP symbol in the wrong format: A symbol shown in English only on a bilingual label, or redrawn instead of taken from Schedule K.1, does not meet the rule. CFIA has said its inspections will monitor FOP compliance.

Partial bilingual compliance on imported products: Products from outside Canada entering the Canadian market must still meet full bilingual requirements. Importers sometimes add a bilingual sticker to the back of a unilingual product but miss elements on the front panel.

Getting Bilingual Labelling Right: Practical Steps

1. Audit your current labels against the bilingual requirements in SFCR s.206 and FDR B.01.012: Every mandatory element listed above needs a French equivalent.
2. Use a translator who knows Canadian food labelling rules: Food labelling has specific terminology. A general translator may produce grammatically correct French that uses the wrong regulatory terms, such as an allergen source name that does not match the French text of the FDR.
3. Update French labels when formulations change: Build French label review into your formulation change process, so the French label changes in the same release as the English one.
4. Verify FOP symbol compliance: If your product triggers the FOP threshold, confirm the symbol format, placement and language versions meet the requirements above.
5. Keep records of your bilingual review process: If you need a preventive control plan, SFCR s.89(1)(a) requires it to describe how you meet the bilingual requirement in s.206(1). A documented label review process that includes bilingual verification gives you that record during an inspection.
6. Test your recall readiness with bilingual labels in scope: In a mock recall, can you identify every product with a specific label version, including the French text? If your label management system does not track French versions separately, that gap needs attention.