Transcript Slide 1

FOOD LABELLING AND AGRIFOOD POLICY IN CANADA
Presented by Monica Lipai
AGEC630 Term Paper, Winter 2006.
WHY FOOD LABELLING?
• Healthy and informed consumer choices.
• Increasing demand for quality foodstuffs at the
international level.
• The Agri-Food Policy Framework 2002-2007.
• Labeling regulation is a complex and challenging
issue
Canadian Federal Food Labelling
Legislation
• The Food and Drugs Act – FDA
• The Food and Drug Regulations- FDR
• The Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act- CPLA
• The Consumer Packaging and Labelling Regulations- CPLR
Additional information :
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the Canada Agricultural Products Act – CAPA, CAPR
the Meat Inspection Act – MIA, MIR
the Fish Inspection Act- FIA, FIR
the Competition Act
the Trade-marks Act
Administration and Enforcement of
the Canadian Federal Food
Labelling Regulations
• Health Canada
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency-CFIA
- CFIA’s Food Labelling Information Service
- CFIA’s Label Registration Unit
• Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/guide/tab2e.shtml
Why do we need Government intervention
in the regulation of food labelling?
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Food safety
Quality Characteristics of foods
Protection from fraud
Trade barriers- rent seeking behavior
International Standards- transaction cost.
- CODEX- FAO/WHO
- IPPC
- OIE
- the SPS agreement- GATT- Uruguay Round
- the TBT agreement-GATT- Uruguay Round
The Economic theory behind the market
failure of food quality as a public good
• “Market of lemons” –Akerlof 1970- asymmetric information
• High quality “Reputation effect” theory- Klein and Leffler
1981- no market failure?
• Supply chain by vertical coordination
• Information attributes problems - Tirole 1988
-transformation of credence in search attributes by:
- Labelling regulations-Organic, Eco labelling
- Segregation Regulations- GM
• Government tries to solve the market failure by supplying
information trough regulations
CONCLUSION
• Food labeling regulations are a result of the market failure of the
quality food public good created because of under information.
• Domestic and international food quality standards have the
characteristics of a public good so there is a reason for
Government and International Organization to intervene.
• Food quality standards can be lower transaction cost but can be
used as non-tariff trade barriers.
• FOOD LABELLING IS A COMPLEX AND CHALLENGING ISSUE
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