International

There is currently no international standard for beer and, as a result, the compositional standards and regulations for beer differ from country to country.

Many international trading partners, including the European Union, require food allergen labelling on beer.

With these amendments, all imported beer will be required to comply with all aspects of the regulatory requirements, including the 4% residual sugar limit and the food allergen source, gluten source and added sulphite labelling.

Statistics from 2015 indicate that imported beer from the United States (3%) and Europe (6.7%) make up a small portion of the domestic beer market. The purpose of the amendments is to allow brewers to take advantage of innovations in brewing and to better reflect market developments within the Canadian brewing industry while maintaining the characteristics of beer. While the current standards and changes differ in some respects from those of international trading partners, these changes are not expected to impact trade.