Chapter 9: Food Labelling Practices in North America: Canada and the USA

Food labels represent an important tool for consumers to secure information about food product composition and facilitate informed decision-making regarding suitability. Canada and the USA have led the way, by means of adopting food labelling regulatory requirements with mandatory declarations, where thresholds of risk or evidence have been attained. In both countries, regulators have also set conditions for the discretionary use of certain statements on food labels. This chapter reviews food labelling regulatory practices in Canada and the USA, with an emphasis on their policy rationale and drivers of change.