Representatives of the Canadian food processing industry met yesterday with Minister of State for Agriculture Jean-Pierre Blackburn to discuss steps to securing a strong competitive future for the Canadian food processing industry.

As part of The Food Processing Competitiveness Industry-Government Action Plan Ottawa has committed to concluding new consultations with industry and consumers on proposed amendments to "Product of Canada" and "Made in Canada" guidelines that would exempt specific ingredients which are difficult to source in Canada.

Mr Blackburn says it's very important for consumers to know if it's a product of Canada or not.

Jean-Pierre Blackburn-Minister of State (Agriculture) Canada

We define that to write on your product this is a product of Canada the contents should be 98 per cent but the producers told us the problem was when they add some sugar or when they add salt or spice or vinegar, when they add that in their product it's like they are over and they are not able to say this is a product of Canada.

We feel it could be interesting to listen to them and to exclude from this 98 per cent some specific products like sugar, salt, vinegar spice and so on.

It's themselves who need to define what are their needs and at the end we want to be sure that the consumers agree with those products that we should not count in the total of the 98 per cent.

Public consultations begin this month and Mr Blackburn says the hope is to reach a consensus on the proposed changes by the end of June.

For information on the process visit the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's labelling web site.