Canada now has a plant-based certification program

With the plant-based food and beverage market thriving in Canada, a certification system has been put into place giving consumers the confidence to know the product they're purchasing is made entirely of ingredients derived from plants.

The Certified Plant Based program is owned by the U.S.-based Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) and lays out what's required from food and beverage companies to make a certified plant-based food claim.

(Plant-Based Foods of Canada, a division of Food & Consumer Products of Canada that launched in 2018, announced on Wednesday that the program is now available in Canada.)

Foods eligible for the certification include meat, poultry, and seafood alternatives, egg substitutes, and dairy alternatives such as plant-based milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and ice cream.

"We are thrilled to share the Certified Plant Based program with our Canadian colleagues," said Michele Simon, Executive Director of the Plant Based Foods Association. "The program has already received significant positive response, with major brands and retailers adopting the seal to give consumers confidence in the plant-based label. It makes sense to spread that trust across the border given our overlapping markets," she added.

According to Nielsen, the plant-based foods category in Canada was valued at $412M at the end of 2018 with growth of 11%. The introduction of this program will only accelerate this growth, supporting transparency and a clear standard for industry to follow when making a plant-based declaration.