Bill S-202: An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (warning label on alcoholic beverages)

This bill directly affects breweries, wineries, distilleries, cideries, and any business that packages and sells alcoholic beverages containing 1.1% or more alcohol by volume across all Canadian provinces and territories. Whether you're a small craft brewery bottling a few hundred cases a year or a large national beverage company, you would need to redesign your product labels and packaging to include the prescribed warning information — standard drink volume, number of standard drinks per container, safe consumption guidance, and a cancer risk message. Day-to-day operations impacted include packaging design, print ordering, inventory management (transitioning old labels to new ones), and compliance verification. Importers and distributors who bring foreign alcoholic beverages into Canada would also be affected, as they would need to ensure all products meet the new labeling requirements before sale.