Protein Industries Canada’s role in regulatory reform

Regulatory modernization is one of the many ways through which Protein Industries Canada is working to make Canada a global leader in the plant-protein ingredient supply chain. By ensuring regulations related to everything from variety development to market access are up to date and based on science, Canada can help keep the plant-protein sector strong while ensuring food safety remains a priority.

“When we do surveys, this has consistently been one of the top three issues facing our member companies,” Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel said. “What we’re seeing right now is the food sector innovate at a rapid pace, and we’ve got a regulatory system that is not keeping up with the pace of innovation. That’s why it is so critical industry associations like Protein Industries Canada, who understand the issues and challenges that are facing our highly innovative member companies, are working to try to stay ahead of those issues and challenges with the regulator.”

Two of Protein Industries Canada’s biggest regulatory focuses include adjustments to the processes surrounding protein label claims and novel food approvals. Pulse Canada and Plant-Based Foods of Canada have been significant partners in moving these issues forward, with Health Canada acting as a receptive audience.

“It’s following science,” Protein Industries Canada’s Programs and Regulatory Director Lisa Campbell said. “Health Canada will never do anything that impacts the health of Canadians … but when the science shows PDCAAS is a more accurate representation of the protein requirement for humans, they’re clear to look at that.”

PDCAAS (Protein Digestible Corrected Amino Acid Score) and PER (Protein Efficiency Ratio) refer to methods by which the protein content of a food is tested. In Canada, protein content must be tested using the PER method in order for a food to carry the “source of protein” label. This method assesses protein content by testing the growth rate of a rat fed the protein in question compared to rats fed diets containing casein as a primary source of protein. The PDCAAS method, on the other hand, can often be calculated on a theoretical basis, so in some cases removes the need to test on animals—an important factor for many plant-based protein suppliers and consumers.

Protein Industries Canada’s efforts to change processes around novel food claims, meanwhile, relate to easing processors’ and manufacturers’ ability to introduce new plant-protein products to the Canadian market. Currently, receiving approval for a “novel” food can take a significant amount of time, and determining in advance which foods would be considered novel can be difficult. Work in this area is focused on clarifying what qualifies as novel, as well as shortening the approval timeframe.

Positive steps have already been made in both areas. Health Canada has begun listing foods they consider not novel on their website, and they are recognizing PDCAAS in addition to PER as an acceptable method for accurately measuring the protein quality of food products.

“This is an interim step that Health Canada is allowing to be used until legislation can officially be changed,” Campbell said of PDCAAS and PER. Once legislation is officially changed, it is expected that processors and manufacturers would be able to choose to utilize either PDCAAS or PER testing on foods targeted for the general population in Canada.

The achievement of these two regulatory goals won’t mean the end of Protein Industries Canada’s work in the regulatory world, however. Campbell and Greuel agreed that regulatory modernization will be an ongoing process, evolving as the plant-protein sector evolves.

“The pace of innovation is not going to slow down, it’s only going to accelerate,” Greuel said. “Consumers are demanding new products on the store shelves, and there are so many benefits, from human nutrition, to environmental benefits, all of the good things that are coming, that the explosion of innovation in the food sector and the incorporation of plant-based ingredients into diets, that we have a responsibility to make sure that the regulatory system is keeping up.”