Canada

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is responsible for labelling Canadian food products that have been genetically engineered. There are a set of rules or census that the agency goes by to ensure the consumer is aware of any health and safety concerns such as allergens or a significant nutritional or compositional change made by the genetic modification. They have to ensure that the label is easy to understand for the general public and cannot put a misleading label on the product to raise sales weather its negative or positive.(3) In Canada there is a seven to ten year processes to test how safe a new genetically modified food product is. Manufacturers who wish to sell a new GM food in Canada have to fill out and send in the results of these tests to Health Canada before they go on the market. The first step in the process is Pre-submission consultation where manufactures will look at the requirements for a new GM food before sending in their data. Then there is the Pre-market notification where the products advocate will send in the GM`s information to the Novel Food section of Health Canada. They then run many scientific tests on the product to make sure they are safe for consumption. Next there is a scientific assessment where scientists will assess many components of the product based on their molecular biology of the data, the potential for new toxins in the food or new allergens, the microbiological/chemical safety of the food or the potential for unintended secondary effects. If health Canada finds the info sent in by the advocate to be insufficient further documentation will be requested and will not look at the food again until all the requested documentations are sent in. The health Canada evaluators will summarize their findings and then send  them to seniors from the Food Directorate to ensure all issues have been looked at. Finally the decision to approve the GM food or not is made.