Newly licensed NHPs to be temporarily exempt from upcoming labelling requirements

Health Canada has published a Notice of Intent to publish a ministerial order to exempt natural health products (NHPs) licensed between June 21, 2025, and June 21, 2028, from labelling requirements that are set to come into force this summer under the Natural Health Products Regulations (NHPR). Instead, under the proposed ministerial order, manufacturers of such NHPs will have the choice of complying with either the new labelling provisions or the previous labelling provisions under the NHPR. This would be a temporary measure intended to give Health Canada time to address concerns from industry about the feasibility of applying the impending NHP labelling requirements.

New labelling requirements under the Natural Health Products Regulations

The labelling amendments, announced in 2022, are intended to address issues around poor communication to consumers and inconsistencies on NHP labels by introducing three key requirements: 

• Product Facts Table. The NHP label must include information regarding the NHP’s ingredients, uses, risks, dose, duration, and storage conditions. It must also contain a telephone number, an email address, or a website of a representative of the product licence holder of the NHP. 
• Food Allergen Information. The label must include a list of food allergens present in the NHP. It must also list if the product contains gluten, added sulphites, or aspartame. 
• Readability Standards. The label must comply with character size, font, and colour restrictions.

The amendments are set to come into force on June 21, 2025. NHPs licensed prior to June 21, 2025, have a transition period until June 21, 2028, to comply with the new labelling requirements while NHPs licensed after June 21, 2025, were originally expected to comply with the new labelling requirements immediately. 

Health Canada’s proposed ministerial order

Since the publication of the amendments, industry stakeholders have reported difficulties in implementing the new labelling requirements. Companies are finding it particularly challenging to fit all required information on the labels of their NHPs without compromising readability, especially for NHPs with multiple ingredients or risk statements. 

Health Canada has stated that the ministerial order would, among other things, allow time to consider “flexibilities to support industry compliance, while protecting the intended consumer benefits of the labelling requirements.” The measure would also ensure that new NHPs can still enter the market in the meantime, given that they may choose to comply with the less onerous previous labelling requirements under the NHPR. Meanwhile, Health Canada is expecting to develop and finalize additional guidance and tools to aid in implementing the new labeling requirements. 

Next steps

Health Canada will continue to hold consultation sessions with industry and health stakeholders prior to publishing the ministerial order. Once in place, the ministerial order will remain in effect until June 21, 2028, at which point it will be repealed. During this time, newly licensed NHPs will effectively be subject to the same transition period as NHPs licensed prior to June 21, 2025.

The authors would like to thank Chloe Loblaw, articling student, for her contribution to preparing this legal update.