Five days before Ottawa amended the Federal Plastics Registry reporting notice, I was presenting on an Alberta Agriculture panel on Sustainable Packaging in Canadian Agri-Food. I described Phase 2 as the next expansion of Canada’s federal plastics data layer. I told them the next phase would add resin manufacturers and importers, broaden the product categories, and pull in industrial and commercial waste data alongside the residential stream that Phase 1 already covers. I was working from the notice as it existed on March 9, 2026. On March 14, Environment and Climate Change Canada published an amended notice in the Canada Gazette that removed Phases 2 and 3 from the reporting notice, confirmed Phase 1 for 2024, and extended it through 2025 and 2026.

Radio-Canada's Enquête recently reported that cans sold as "pure maple syrup" by a Quebec producer contained substantial cane sugar. The story fits a familiar pattern: economically motivated adulteration thrives where premium pricing, low consumer detectability, and gaps in oversight intersect. Canada's regulatory framework for maple syrup is rigorous, but the reported fraud occurred in a distribution channel that falls outside the primary testing regime. For food businesses handling any high-value ingredient, the underlying dynamics are worth understanding.

I have wanted to write about the 2024 Joriki plant-based milk listeria outbreak and the 2025 CFIA audit of the perceived shortcomings of its multiplicative algorithm, the Establishment-based Risk Assessment ("ERA") Model, leading up to the crisis.

For context, the Globe and Mail reported that Joriki went approximately five years from when it received its licence under the Safe Food for Canadians Act ("SFCA") until the outbreak response without a licence inspection. By the time inspectors finally arrived in June 2024, three people were dead, twenty were sick, and Joriki, the co-manufacturer behind national leading brands of plant-based milks, was weeks away from shuttering its operations (it would go on to file for creditor protection with over $200 million in outstanding debts). But up until that point, the ERA model's algorithm did not direct CFIA to require them to go in.

I’ve had a chance to think about the Canada–China Summit in January, which included widely reported agrifood announcements being described as a new dawn or more cautiously, a thawing of what has been a very frosty relationship. I thought it would be worthwhile to think about what is a re-commitment or re-packaged old news, and what we can actually take away from what China and Canada have said since the Summit.

Mistakes happen. With food manufacturing, mistakes can take the form of malfunctioning equipment or cross-contamination of ingredients. Sometimes a key, trusted player in the supply chain sources an ingredient from a new supplier to meet demand, and that new ingredient contains an undeclared allergen. Sometimes, despite rigorous testing and sampling procedures, salmonella finds its way onto the production line and contaminates a LOT.

In 2017, bottles of wine appeared in Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores, which displayed labels with “Product of Israel” as their Country of Origin. Some consumers took issue with this origin claim, though, as the wine came from the West Bank – a contested territory with a history of Palestinian existence. These consumers felt that it was erasure to label the wines as Israeli when, in fact, the grapevines could be found in the West Bank.

Compositional standards for food, prescribed by law and found in the Canadian Food and Drug Regulations (“FDRs”) and Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (“SFCRs”), often require thorough examination by international and national stakeholders for any food product that is imported, exported, or otherwise transported across borders.

The Government of Canada has a broad goal of moving toward zero plastic waste. This goal includes requiring at least 50 percent recycled content in plastic packaging by 2030. Environment and Climate Change Canada (“ECCC”), the federal ministry charged with the recycling file, has released two consultations regarding a suite of measures to make some tangible progress towards these targets.

Nous sommes ravis d'annoncer l'arrivée de notre nouvel associé, Luc Bélanger. Cet ajout stratégique renforce non seulement l'expertise de notre équipe, mais nous permet également de mieux servir nos clients en leur offrant des services juridiques en français et en leur apportant une connaissance approfondie de la réglementation sur le marché canadien.

We are thrilled to announce the addition of our newest partner, Luc Bélanger. This strategic addition not only strengthens our team's depth of expertise but also allows us to better serve our clients by offering legal services in French and providing extensive regulatory knowledge across the Canadian market.