Bilingual Packaging and Labelling Requirements for Ontario Businesses Selling Nationally

An Ontario business that starts selling packaged products beyond its own region often runs into a rule it never had to think about while selling locally: bilingual packaging and labelling requirements. Federal law, not provincial law, generally governs this, and it applies based on where a product is sold in Canada, not where the business is based. A product that's perfectly fine on the shelf in Ontario can still need work before it's compliant nationally.

This article explains where these requirements come from, what "bilingual" typically means in practice, and how to check before your next print run.

The Law Behind Bilingual Labelling

Most prepackaged consumer products sold in Canada are governed by the federal Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, which sets baseline requirements for the information a package must display — including a bilingual, English-and-French, requirement for certain mandatory information. Food products are layered with their own additional federal labelling framework, administered separately, which generally imposes its own bilingual labelling obligations on top of other food-specific requirements like ingredient lists and allergen declarations.

Because these are federal statutes with product-specific regulations underneath them, and because requirements can be updated, treat the general description below as a starting point for your own research, not a final answer for your specific product.

What "Bilingual" Usually Means in Practice

• Certain core mandatory information — such as a product's common or generic name and its net quantity — generally must appear in both English and French.
• Other information, such as a business's dealer name and address, generally does not have to be bilingual.
• Narrow exemptions and special rules exist for specific product categories, test markets, or particular circumstances — these are product-specific and shouldn't be assumed without checking.

Food Products Are a Special Case

If your product is food, don't assume the general consumer-goods framework is the whole picture. Prepackaged food sold in Canada is generally subject to its own federal labelling requirements — including bilingual labelling — administered separately from general consumer products, and layered with additional food-specific obligations around nutrition information, ingredients, and allergens. Food labelling deserves its own dedicated review rather than being treated as an afterthought to general packaging rules.

Does This Apply If I Only Sell Within Ontario?

Possibly, yes — and this is the point that catches Ontario businesses off guard. Federal packaging and labelling law generally applies based on where the product itself is sold in Canada, not on where the business selling it is based. An Ontario business selling only to Ontario customers can still be subject to federal bilingual labelling rules if the product is a prepackaged consumer product caught by the legislation. This is different from a rule that only applies once you "go national," so don't assume a purely local footprint takes you out of scope.

Who Actually Checks This?

Enforcement of general consumer packaging and labelling rules generally falls to a federal regulator, with food-specific labelling generally overseen separately by its own federal food-safety authority. In practice, a compliance problem is more likely to surface through a complaint, an inspection, or a retailer's own review of a new supplier's packaging than through a proactive government audit — which is exactly why many businesses don't discover a labelling gap until a retailer flags it or a batch is already printed. Reviewing your label against the current requirements before a national retailer or distributor asks you to is far cheaper than reprinting packaging after the fact.

A Practical Checklist Before You Print Packaging

• [ ] Identify whether your product is a "prepackaged consumer product" caught by federal labelling rules.
• [ ] Confirm whether it's a food product subject to additional, food-specific labelling requirements.
• [ ] Identify which specific pieces of information must appear in both English and French for your product category.
• [ ] Check for any narrow exemptions that might apply to your specific product or market.
• [ ] Have your final label reviewed before your first print run, not after.

Frequently asked questions