We’d like to start by saying:

All Value-added Agri-Food activity in Canada contributes to the health of Canadians, our economy and the stability and security of our food supply. Value-added activity can run from simply packaging a pre-made imported product in a Canadian facility through to undertaking the entire process of developing, growing, harvesting, foraging, raising, fishing for, processing, packaging, marketing, distributing and selling the various foods, beverages, and ingredients which make up Canada’s entire Agri-food sector as represented in the diverse categories of products on this website.

Companies and governments develop and support various ways in which they identify and promote Canadian products to Canadians and the international marketplace; from Canada’s Canadian Food Inspection Agency Labelling, through the various provincial labelling and local initiatives, through to the individual Agri-Food companies’ own initiatives to communicate and market “Canadian” aspects of their products domestically and for export markets. These methods for example can include the simple application of the Canadian maple leaf to their packaging. Retailers have their own unique approaches to do the same.

For further descriptions of what the CFIA and Provincial labelling means, we suggest you review the presentation material in the following “Insight – CCF Presentation to Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference 2025 – Part 1 – Agri Food Stats& Food Labels” or CFIA labelling Definitions for Agri-Food Products

All of these labelling initiatives regarding what is “Canadian” are non-compulsory – meaning food companies do not have to use any of these labelling standards. However, if they choose to do so, then they are required to be compliant and able to verify their content statements should governments or consumers challenge their veracity.

Depending on what consumers are seeking – a simple maple leaf on a product may be all a person is looking for to support Canadian, while others may be looking for a more definitive explanation of what the actual Canadian content is in an individual product.

When developing the concept for this website and after careful consideration of the various Canadian content labelling options, CANADIANCOOLFOODS.COM (CCF) was created to be a unique, independent and free Destination Site dedicated to supporting the Canadian public and industry by providing information and links for anyone interested in finding or listing, Canadian owned and controlled companies’ Product of Canada (98% Canadian Ingredients, Labour and Processing) or similar Canadian content foods, beverages and ingredients (for human and pet consumption). We also list Canadian grown and harvested heritage and heirloom seeds, and now a diverse selection of services offered by the companies on our site.

Our reference to 98% Canadian content is used to simplify the formal CFIA explanation of Product of Canada which is: “A food product may use the claim “Product of Canada” when all or virtually all major ingredients, processing, and labour used to make the food product are Canadian. This means that all the significant ingredients in a food product are Canadian in origin and that non-Canadian material is negligible.” “Generally, the percentage referred to as very little or minor is considered to be less than a total of 2 percent of the product.”

So, as we set out to identify Product of Canada, we realized that a simple list did not yet exist or if they did, we couldn’t find one. The search for Product of Canda was difficult and time consuming as we checked grocery stores, online sales platforms, trade shows, farmers markets, print and digital media, sector associations, governments and anywhere else that we could think of.

During the search, we found many products from flour to dairy to meats to foraged foods – basically representative products across all sectors and across all provinces – which did not seem to use a Product of Canada (POC) or other formal label.

As we reached out to these companies to see if they wanted to be listed and why they did not use the POC labelling, their responses were varied, and understandable. It was decided that many of these companies would be invited to be featured on the site and in some cases, if necessary, a statement to describe if there was a shortcoming or challenge regarding Canadian content etc. would be made.

We therefore acknowledged early on that the CFIA labelling definition of Product of Canada was our target, but that many companies chose to not utilize the CFIA definitions. We also found that there are many Canadian products that meet and/or are very close to meeting the Product of Canada definition which do not use POC. We determined that products that meet the following Canadian content standards – either by formal or informal labelling systems or through confirming verbally and/or in writing to CCF that they meet a certain standard, can be featured on CCF.

We use our own discretion and site users are provided relevant links to check out the companies and their products themselves and make their own informed decisions regarding how they wish to Canadianize their own food, beverage and ingredient consumption. Here are some examples of what we determined would be acceptable.

100% Canadian Ingredients

Some companies use the 100% Canadian Ingredient CFIA definition and when all ingredients in the product are Canadian, and/or if a small amount is not Canadian (CCF usually allows for 3-4% non-Canadian based on what the company tells us), we will feature these products.

An example of 100% Canadian Pork is Drake Meats. Discussions with Drake Meats have identified those products that utilize only Canadian ingredients and are thus featured.

We also feature a number of dairy products which do not use the Product of Canada, nor the blue cow, but upon discussions with the company, we are satisfied that the product is 100% Canadian ingredients, labour and processing; for example, Stoney Brook Creamery products. Many dairy product companies are restricted to selling their products within their province and thus are not interested in a national labelling initiative.

We also found that many companies used a Product of Canada on their products during those seasons when the products were available; and Product of “another country” when products had to be imported due to seasonal considerations. Little Potato Company is a good example of how they correctly label Product of Canada and change the packaging when they are importing. CCF addresses this in the product description.

We therefore decided that CCF would include products that we determined would:

meet the CFIA definition of POC but that did not use the labelling,
meet the 100% simple Canadian ingredient CFIA labelling but did not use the labelling,
be sold and labelled as Canadian in season, and / or
required a small percentage (additional 2-3%) of imported ingredients.

Not all Product of Canada foods are listed

We also wish to advise site users that to the best of our knowledge; we only feature Canadian companies who produce Product of Canada or similar Canadian content. This isn’t as simple as it may seem as companies are in a continual flux in terms of ownership and control as well as where, how and with what ingredients their products are made.

Thus, if a US company produces a brand of their own in Canada, we acknowledge that these are important value-added products, but since the ownership and control of the company appears to be outside of Canada, we do not list these products.

There are global companies who through various ways, label their own brands which they sell as “Product of Canada” and that these should meet the CFIA requirements. CCF made the decision early on that these products, such as Costco’s Kirkland Honey, which has a Product of Canada label on it, will not be listed on the site.

Site visitors should note however that these products are certainly Canadian Value-Added and that many of the production facilities of these global companies are in Canada to serve the Canadian market. As well, Canadian companies themselves could be producing these products for their international clients in Canada as private labelling services etc. again, we determined that we would feature Product of Canada or similar Canadian content products that are produced by Canadian owned and controlled companies.

We acknowledge that we may not be 100% consistent in the application of this decision due to various and changing factors affecting actual Canadian ownership. We try to be as verifiable, consistent, timely and correct as possible but cannot commit to 100% conformity with our own intentions.