FOP Symbol Checker — Does your food product need Canada's nutrition symbol?

STEP 1 / ÉTAPE 1

First: is your product exempt?

Check anything that describes your product. Leave everything unchecked if none apply. Exemptions come from Health Canada’s industry guide — some are conditional, so always verify.

Technical & practical

Not sold directly to consumers, or an individual portion served only by a restaurant/institution to accompany a meal (e.g. crackers with soup, coffee creamers) Very small package — available display surface under 15 cm² Milk or cream sold in a refillable glass container Raw, single-ingredient whole cut of meat, poultry or fish with no Nutrition Facts table

Health-related (conditional)

Fruits or vegetables (fresh, frozen, canned or dried) with no added saturated fat, sugars or sodium Plain milk, plain yogurt or cheese (calcium-source exemption) Raw, single-ingredient ground meat or ground poultry (conditional — lost if certain triggers apply)

“Obviously high in” (redundancy)

Butter, sugar, salt, honey, maple syrup — or a product used the same way (e.g. celery salt, seasoning salt, vegetable oil)

Different rules apply

Intended solely for children 1–4 years old, or a specialized food (infant food, meal replacement, food for special dietary use)

Likely exempt — verify before relying on it. Several exemptions are conditional and can be lost (for example, adding seasoning to ground meat). Confirm your exact case in the Health Canada industry guide and the CFIA Industry Labelling Tool.

Children 1–4 / specialized foods use different values. This checker covers foods for adults and children 4+. Foods solely for children 1–4 use a separate Daily Value column, and some specialized foods are prohibited from showing the symbol. Consult the industry guide for these.

STEP 2 / ÉTAPE 2

Your quantities and nutrients

Serving size on your Nutrition Facts table The “serving of stated size”

Reference amount for your food category From Health Canada’s Table of Reference Amounts — the single most common mistake is skipping this

Same unit as serving size. If your serving and reference amount use different units, consult the guide.

This is a main dish as listed in the Table of Reference Amounts, with a reference amount of 200 g or more (e.g. frozen lasagna, meat pie, pizza). Main dishes use a higher 30% threshold.

Dense breakfast cereal (granola)? Under Health Canada’s March 6, 2025 interim policy, dense ready-to-eat cereals (43 g or more per 250 mL, item C.4) may be assessed on a 55 g basis instead of the greater of serving size and reference amount. If that’s you, enter 55 in both quantity fields.

Saturated fat per serving (g) Saturated fat only — the FOP calculation uses sat fat alone against the combined sat + trans Daily Value (20 g). This is different from your Nutrition Facts %DV.

Total sugars per serving (g) Daily Value: 100 g

Sodium per serving (mg) Daily Value: 2300 mg

Need proof for a retailer, co-packer or inspector?

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Does your product need the “High in” symbol?

First: is your product exempt?

Technical & practical

Health-related (conditional)

“Obviously high in” (redundancy)

Different rules apply

Your quantities and nutrients

Verdict

Need proof for a retailer, co-packer or inspector?