Canada Proposes to Revoke Food Additive Permits for Two Fluorinated Substances

On November 5, 2026, Canada submitted SPS notification G/SPS/N/CAN/1654 to the WTO. Health Canada issued a proposal notice on October 29, 2026, planning to amend the "List of Food Additives Permitted for Various Uses", proposing to delete Chloropentafluoroethane and Octafluorocyclobutane, and no longer approve these two substances for use as food additives. 

This proposal aims to control food safety, and there are no relevant international standards for reference. The effective method of this amendment is relatively special. There is no pre-set adoption and publication date. Once the amended content is published on the official webpage of the List of Permitted Food Additives in Canada, the amendment shall have legal effect.

The deadline for public comment collection is January 27, 2027, totaling 90 days from the release of the proposal notice. Relevant enterprises and stakeholders may submit inquiries to the Canada National Enquiry Point, or submit new scientific data related to the safety assessment of the two substances.

Food-related enterprises exporting to Canada need to focus on subsequent list update dynamics. Once the two substances are formally removed from the permitted list, they shall no longer be used as food additives within Canada. Enterprises need to evaluate their product formulas in advance to avoid product customs clearance obstacles caused by additive compliance issues.

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