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Notice to industry - New bilingual labelling regulations for veterinary biologics and seed treated with pest control products

May 9, 2018

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has implemented regulatory changes that require information related to health and safety on labels of veterinary biologics, such as vaccines, and seed treated with pest control products will be required to appear in both official languages. These changes mean that veterinary biologics sold in Canada need to be labelled in both French and English and that certain information – the precautionary signal word (e.g. caution, danger, corrosive) and statement – on labels for seed treated with pest control products sold in Canada also needs to be in both French and English.

It is important to all Canadians to have access to information related to health and safety in their official language of choice. These changes to the Health of Animals Regulations and the Seeds Regulations are needed to ensure the safety of Canadians and to fulfill the CFIA's duty under Canada's Official Languages Act. These regulatory changes have been enacted in the Canada Gazette Part II and registered on April 23, 2018.

The CFIA recognizes that companies will have costs related to the new bilingual labelling requirements. To help ease potential burden, the CFIA is providing a two-year implementation phase to allow companies to use up their existing inventories of unilingual labels.

For more information on these regulations, please contact the nearest CFIA office.

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