How can an importer verify a nutritional facts table?
Hi all,
Hoping for some advice- I work for a Canadian distributor who imports some products from the US.
We received an email from the CFIA as they have conducted some testing on products we import and they found that one items sugar content was wrongly declared (0g declared, 0.66g found during test).
They want to know what we do to ensure the Nutritional Facts Table is correct before distributing the products. We have a robust supplier approval scheme but adding in nutritional testing for all new items just wouldn't be feasible. It would be extremely costly and onerous to oversee as a one person department.
What are other importers doing to meet the NFT verification requirement?
Thanks!
Cal.
Ask for the COA BEFORE you receive the product if you're not already
Then ask them how the verify against Canadian regulations as the NFT requirements are not the same or do that yourself against the label only
The law is not on your side, as the importer it is your responsibility to ensure the products are accurate to our regulations
My guess what happened - rounding on your supplier. When the company tested it for nutritional value, the number was low enough to be rounded down.
Look at the ingredient statement. if you know what words to look out for, you'll know if there is sugar in an item or not. Do you ask for the nutritional facts panel per serving or for 100 g. I would ask for 100 g if you don't.
https://inspection.c...-allergens#s6c2
https://inspection.c...pliance-test#c6
Based on above, there was an ingredient that CFIA considers sugar that was not labelled as such
Ask for the COA BEFORE you receive the product if you're not already
Then ask them how the verify against Canadian regulations as the NFT requirements are not the same or do that yourself against the label only
The law is not on your side, as the importer it is your responsibility to ensure the products are accurate to our regulations
This sounds like my best bet- we normally only gather COAs for allergen free claims etc, but I will add this to our supplier approval process.
Thank you and everyone for the suggestions!