In Canada, a standardized "Nutrition Facts" label was introduced as part of regu

lations passed in 2003, and became mandatory for most prepackaged food products
on December 12, 2005. (Smaller businesses were given until December 12, 2007 to
make the information available.).[4] In accordance with food packaging laws in t
he country, all information, including the nutrition label, must be written in b
oth English and French, the country's two official languages.[5]
Canadian regulation tightly controls the manner in which the nutrition fact tabl
e (NFT) data are laid out. There is a wide variety of possible formats for use o
n a given food package. A selection hierarchy is used to select among the many f
ormats (28 main formats, and 2-7 sub formats for each). This results in standard
(vertical) formats being considered for use before horizontal and linear format
s. The selection hierarchy also allows the NFT to occupy no more than 15% of the
physical package's available display area (ADS), but never to be smaller than a
format that would be <=15% of ADS. In practice, determining the ADS of a packag
e, and selecting the appropriate NFT format, can be a detailed calculation.