Increased awareness from food allergen source, gluten source, and added sulphite labelling on products also contributes to an improved quality of life by reducing uncertainty and fear among food-sensitive individuals and their families and enabling an increased opportunity for socializing. Although those with allergies, celiac disease and sensitivities only represent a small proportion of Canadians (approximately 5%), some of these are beer consumers who will be provided with the opportunity to identify and select the most appropriate products prior to their consumption.

Monetized costs

(a) Labelling (labour and capital)

The enhanced mandatory labelling fully applies to the declaration of food allergen sources, gluten sources and added sulphites, and any added flavour is required to appear as part of the common name. These amendments require businesses to relabel their products (recognizing, however, that products that are currently considered unstandardized are already subject to the enhanced food allergen source, gluten source and added sulphite labelling requirements). In addition, beverages that exceed the 4% residual sugar limit may not be sold as beer or use beer as a common name, and therefore have to be relabelled. Also, some existing beer could be reformulated to meet the 4% residual sugar limit and therefore might also need to be relabelled to reflect the changes in the formulation. For brewers that need to relabel their products, there are additio