Health Canada Introduces New Flexibility For Unenriched White Flour In Certain Foods

Health Canada has introduced a new interim policy providing food companies with greater flexibility to import and use unenriched white flour in the manufacture of certain foods in Canada when prescribed conditions are met.¹

Historically, Canada's requirements have been quite restrictive. Under the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR), the sale and importation of white flour in Canada is prohibited unless the flour contains prescribed levels of iron and B vitamins, specifically thiamine, riboflavin, niacin or niacinamide, and folic acid. The only regulatory exception is for white flour used in or sold for the manufacture of gluten or starch.

While mandatory flour enrichment remains an important public health measure, the requirement can create regulatory and supply-chain challenges where flour is used only in minor amounts, including where it is used as a carrier in another ingredient.

What has changed?

Effective August 31, 2026, Health Canada is recommending that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) exercise enforcement discretion to allow the import and sale of unenriched white flour directly to manufacturers or distributors for use in specified categories of foods.

The eligible uses extend across a relatively broad range of food categories. Examples include certain frozen desserts, confectionery products, sauces, gravies and marinades, soups, meat, poultry and seafood products, flavoured grain mixtures, and preparations or mixtures in which flour is used as a carrier, such as flavouring preparations, food additive preparations, spice mixtures and vitamin premixes.

The policy contains specific conditions and exclusions within a number of these categories, so manufacturers should confirm that their particular food falls within its scope. Importantly, this is not a general authorization to use unenriched flour in all foods.

An important change for composite ingredients

The policy is also relevant where unenriched white flour is present in an ingredient, inclusion or preparation in an eligible finished food.

For example, the policy expressly identifies ice cream containing cookie dough chunks made with unenriched flour as an eligible product. Similarly, unenriched flour may be present within other preparations (e.g., flavour preparations, spice mixtures) incorporated into an eligible finished food.

This is particularly significant for Canadian manufacturers sourcing composite ingredients from jurisdictions where flour is not routinely enriched to Canadian standards. Previously, the presence of unenriched flour in an imported ingredient or component could create a Canadian compliance issue even where the flour represented only a minor portion of the overall food.

Health Canada's assessment concluded that, in the food categories identified in the policy, flour is generally present in only minor amounts. As such, permitting unenriched flour in these circumstances is not expected to meaningfully affect Canadians' intake of nutrients normally provided through flour fortification. Health Canada used a threshold of less than 5% of the Daily Value for folate to help identify appropriate food categories. Importantly, this threshold is not intended to be applied as a separate eligibility test to individual products.

Although unenriched white flour and foods containing unenriched white flour may already be exported from Canada where applicable requirements are met, the policy also recommends enforcement discretion for manufacturers producing foods in Canada for export.

Conditions still apply

This is an interim enforcement policy rather than an amendment to the FDR. Unenriched white flour supplied under the policy must be identified as required and bear the statement “for manufacturing use only.” The manufacturer or distributor must also provide the purchaser with information indicating that the flour is intended only for permitted uses under the policy, and must maintain traceability records.

Foods sold in Canada that contain unenriched white flour must continue to comply with all applicable labelling requirements under the FDA, FDR, Safe Food for Canadians Act and Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. In particular, ingredient declarations must not be misleading, and unenriched white flour must not be declared as “enriched flour” or “enriched white flour.”

Foods falling outside the categories identified in the policy remain subject to the existing regulatory framework, including the general prohibition on the sale and importation of unenriched white flour.

For manufacturers dealing with imported ingredients, inclusions, premixes and other preparations containing small quantities of flour, the policy represents a welcome reduction in regulatory burden. Perhaps most importantly, it provides a practical solution to a longstanding compliance obstacle where an otherwise acceptable product or ingredient contains a relatively small amount of flour that was not enriched according to Canadian requirements.

Health Canada has indicated that it intends to pursue amendments to the FDR as part of future modernization efforts. Accordingly, manufacturers should continue to monitor developments as the interim approach evolves into a permanent regulatory framework.

Footnote

1. Interim policy on the import and sale of unenriched white flour for use in the manufacture of certain foods - Canada.ca

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