Net Quantity

This information is part of the core labelling requirements. Other requirements may also apply for specific products.

4, CPLA; 14 and 18, CPLR; 9, Weights and Measures Act; 46 to 48, Weights and Measures Regulations

Prepackaged products must have a net quantity declaration with the following exceptions:

  • Prepackaged individual servings of food prepared by a commissary and sold in automatic vending machines or mobile canteens;
  • Prepackaged individual portions of food that are served by a restaurant, airline, etc. with meals or snacks;
  • Certain products (called catchweight products) which, due to their nature, cannot be packaged to a predetermined weight (e.g., turkeys, meat cuts, etc.) and are sold to a retailer by a manufacturer. The retailer is responsible for applying the net quantity declaration prior to offering the food for sale.

The CPLA and CPLR require net quantity declarations on labels of foods packaged for consumers and prescribe how the declaration must appear. The Weights and Measures Act and Regulations require a declaration of net quantity for foods that have not been prepackaged for retail sale (i.e., those foods not covered by the CPLA).

The net quantity must be declared in metric units on the principal display panel on consumer packages in both French and English. The following metric symbols are considered to be bilingual (and should not be followed by any punctuation):

  • g - for grams
  • kg - for kilograms
  • ml, mL or - for millilitres
  • l, L or picture of litre symbol- for litres

In general, the net quantity must be indicated [21, CPLR]:

  • By volume for liquids; e.g., millilitres, or litres (for amounts more than 1000 ml);
  • By weight for solids; e.g., grams, or kilograms (for amounts more than 1000 g); or
  • By count for certain foods, such as candied apples.

The net quantity must be rounded to three figures, unless the net quantity is below 100, when it may be rounded to two figures.

For example:

  • 453.59 becomes 454
  • 85.6 becomes 86
  • 6.43 becomes 6.4

A minimum type height of 1.6 mm, based on the lowercase letter "o", is required for all information in the net quantity declaration, except for the numerals which are to be shown in bold face type and in the size shown in the table.

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