CFIA would like to advise that a regulatory change has been made that now requires bilingual labels for veterinary biologics and seed treated with pest control products. These changes mean that companies will need to apply French and English labels to:
- veterinary biologics, such as vaccines, sold in Canada
- certain information - precautionary signal word (e.g. caution, danger, corrosive) and statement - on labels for seed treated with pest control products sold in Canada
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.
- The phase-in period will start April 23, 2018 and will end on April 22, 2020.
- On April 23, 2020, companies must fully implement the new bilingual labelling requirements.
For more information, visit the following websites:
- Notice to industry: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/veterinary-biologics/notice-to-industry-2018-05-04/eng/1525459058993/1525459059446
- Frequently asked questions: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/acts-and-regulations/faq-official-languages-act/eng/1525356318650/1525356350554
- Canada Gazette, part II: http://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2018/index-eng.html
- CFIA offices: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/offices/eng/1313255382836/1313256130232