A Canadian report by food industry body Food & Consumer Products of Canada (FCPC) has said that increased regulation is damaging the country’s food sector.
“The future is in functional foods,” said Nancy Croitoru, president of Food & Consumer Products of Canada. According to Croitoru, Canada’s competitors invest heavily “to build enabling regulatory systems to commercialise and manufacture these products. Canada isn’t.”
A chief complaint cited regards health claims. Allowing manufacturers to communicate food benefits to consumers – such as calcium and osteoporosis – fuels innovation by helping to recover investment costs, the report said. However, Canadian regulations currently allow only a few health claims, far less than the current 18 in the United States, where even more are expected.
“An outdated and poorly performing regulatory system is killing investment, innovation and jobs,” said Croitoru. “The food industry faces unnecessarily complex, lengthy product approval procedures, and understaffed regulatory departments that hamper innovation, product launches, competitiveness and growth.”
Advances in technologies create unprecedented opportunities for innovation for which Canada’s current regulatory system is ill prepared, according to the FCPC. The result, the group suggested, is that manufacturers increasingly look elsewhere to develop, produce and market new products – particularly in the health and therapeutic category.
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