What’s Happening at GS1 Canada

Small Business Spotlight: Isabelle Huot Finds Recipe for Success with GS1 Canada

Isabelle Huot is the founder of the brand Isabelle Huot Docteure en nutrition and has been working with GS1 Canada since 2013. We interviewed Isabelle, along with her Operations Manager, Amélie Robert, earlier this year to see how GS1 global standards and GS1 Canada’s solutions have helped her take her business to the next level.

Isabelle Huot is on a mission to help Quebecers eat and live better. In 2011, she founded Kilo Solution, a health-focused brand that delivers nutritious, ready-to-eat meals right to people’s doorsteps. Isabelle quickly saw success with Kilo Solution, and in 2013 she founded Isabelle Huot Docteure en nutrition and expanded her line of product offerings to include premium healthy snacks, fruit spreads, cereals and more. To increase sales and brand visibility, Isabelle knew she had to get her products on grocery store shelves - and to do that, her products needed standardized barcodes.

Prior to working with GS1 Canada, Isabelle was not familiar with the process of obtaining barcodes. Getting Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) for her products, navigating the world of barcodes, making sense of trading partner licensing requirements – it was all new to Isabelle and her team. In fact, in the beginning of her engagement with GS1 Canada, her product data was uploaded to GS1 Canada’s ECCnet Registry directly by the manufacturer, who managed Isabelle’s product data on her behalf. Then, in 2017, Isabelle took matters into her own hands and Isabelle Huot Docteure en nutrition officially became a GS1 Canada subscriber. This change allowed Isabelle to gain better control of the operational side of her business by managing her company’s product information in-house, which in turn helped her brand reputation.

Working with GS1 Canada has been beneficial for the company in multiple ways. According to Isabelle, having a GS1 Company Prefix and GS1 GTINs on her products serves as a sign to trading partners that Isabelle Huot Docteure en nutrition is a reputable business who can meet the needs of trading partners big and small. This has helped Isabelle land major accounts, such as Costco, Loblaw and Metro, and expand the scope of her company. And since GS1 Canada’s tools and solutions are driven by industry, Isabelle has peace of mind that her products meet her trading partner’s requirements.

As a brand owner, working with the right manufacturers and business partners is critical, and having partners who can fulfill her product’s nutritional requirements is a point that Isabelle, who holds a PhD in nutrition, simply cannot compromise on. With her product information safely stored in GS1 Canada’s product registry, Isabelle can easily share her product data seamlessly with existing and new trading partners from one central location.

Isabelle Huot Docteure en nutrition is a small business that has already achieved big success across Quebec – so what’s next? Isabelle has her sights set on expanding her brand across the country, bringing her health-conscious message to all Canadians and adding 1,500 point-of-sale locations from coast to coast.

Isabelle’s high-quality products, coupled with Isabelle and her team’s strong work ethic, are a winning formula. With a little help from GS1 Canada’s standards and solutions, Isabelle Huot is well on her way to conquering her goals and taking Canada by storm.

---

GS1 Canada Partners with the Canada Plastics Pact

GS1 Canada is proud to announce our partnership with the Canada Plastics Pact (CPP). The CPP launched earlier this year and unites leaders and experts in the national plastics value chain to collaborate and rethink the way we design, use and reuse plastic packaging in Canada. As a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network, the CPP joins other Plastics Pacts in Europe, Africa, North America and Latin America in a network of national and regional initiatives working towards a common vision of a circular economy for plastics.

Through our partnership with the CPP, GS1 Canada affirms our commitment to sustainability in plastics and plastic packaging throughout the supply chain. “GS1 Canada is a proud supporter of the Canada Plastics Pact because we believe in the power of global standards to improve the way we work and live.” says Pam Horvatis, Senior Vice President, Industry Relations, GS1 Canada, and GS1 Canada’s representative at the CPP, “Through our community management role and the solid foundation already available through an industry developed national product registry, we hope to play an important part in enabling industry to achieve our collective sustainability goals.”

Read the press release here.

---

Industry Voices its Support for ECCnet Industry Managed Solutions

Both the grocery industry and broker and distributor community have sent out letters to their vendors in support of GS1 Canada’s ECCnet Industry Managed Solutions. Their important messages explain why it is critical to have access to complete bilingual product data and images, especially considering the current landscape and consumers post-pandemic needs.

The letters also outline the steps to quickly and easily share your product data and images with your trading partners.

Read the important message from the grocery industry here.

Read the important message from the broker and distributor community here.

---

Have Your Say on the Future of Canada’s Healthcare System

Now is your opportunity to influence critical decisions that will positively impact patient safety and supply chain visibility capabilities in Canada’s healthcare system. Lend your voice during Health Canada’s consultation for a Unique Device Identification (UDI) system in Canada. This exciting development demonstrates Health Canada’s focus on potential policy specifically related to medical device barcoding and product data (a UDI System). This development is in alignment with GS1 Canada’s Board of Governors, Healthcare Boards and Advisory Council’s goal to seek government-led directives for GS1 Standards and data accuracy in Canada’s healthcare system.

As healthcare leaders, patient safety remains paramount in healthcare delivery. When government calls for input on policy that can improve patient safety and outcomes, we cannot hesitate to ensure our voices are heard loud and clear. Please take a brief minute to click here to add your support for barcoding regulations of medical devices in Canada by September 30, 2021.

---

Update Your Food Labels to Comply with the New Health Canada Food Labelling Requirements

In 2016, the Government of Canada introduced new food labelling regulations in support of Health Canada’s Healthy Eating Strategy to help Canadians make heathier choices. These changes were outlined in the Amendments to the Food and Drug Regulations Related to Nutrition Labelling, List of Ingredients and Food Colour Regulations.

A five-year transition plan was put in place at that time and deadline for compliance is fast approaching.

The transition period for the 2016 nutrition labelling changes is currently set to end on December 14, 2021. However, given the challenges imposed by COVID-19, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will focus its efforts on education and compliance promotion for the first year, until December 14, 2022. For more information, visit the CFIA guidance webpage.

Over the past four years, GS1 Canada has been aligning our systems with these changes to nutritional content so that mandatory attributes are in place for the new regulatory requirements to help ensure your compliance.

If your product label has changed to meet the new nutritional requirements, you will have to:

• If applicable, re-submit your products for Product Image and Data Capture.
• Log into myGS1 and re-certify products in Product Certification – Nutritional Content and/or update ECCnet Registry, if applicable. For more information, please refer to our FAQs.

This will give your trading partners confidence in the accuracy of your product content and ensures your compliance with the Health Canada requirements.

If you have re-formulated your product, you may require a new GTIN. To find out more, please go to gs1ca.org/standards/global-trade-item-numbers.

If you require assistance, please email ECCnetSupport@gs1ca.org. For more detailed information about how GS1 is supporting your business through these changes, please visit our FAQs.

For more information about the Health Canada food labelling changes, click here.

---

Digital Marketing Assets Enhance Online Shopping

To support the explosive growth of digital commerce, your investment in digital marketing assets can now be optimized through Enhanced Assets, available through The Vault.

With increased online shopping comes increased demand for robust visuals, and Enhanced Assets enables you to efficiently load, manage and then share your dynamic content with multiple trading partners from one place. This streamlined access to your product-linked digital assets provides trading partners with greater opportunities to influence customer buying decisions and accelerate online sales.

Enhanced Assets supports lifestyle images, videos, mobile-optimized images, product manuals - and so much more! Have a how-to video showing off those must-have features? Want to share downloadable information showing all the ways your product can be used? Upload them and share with your trading partners for use on their online platforms to help inform customers and increase sales.

Enhanced Assets supports online sales by providing access to digital assets to influence customer buying decisions with the information they have come to expect on digital commerce platforms. This service is available for a fee* to support foodservice, marketing or planogram products in The Vault.

Join us for a webinar to see how Enhanced Assets works. Register now - various dates are available. Register for The Vault for at no cost to access Enhanced Assets today!

*For more information and pricing contact GS1 Canada at images@gs1ca.org or 1.800.567.7084

---

Did You Know That Trading Partners Don’t Have Access to Your Uncertified Nutritional Content?

Access to 100% accurate and complete, bilingual product information coupled with global standard images helps your trading partners confidently select products to build programs and promotions to meet consumer health and lifestyle needs. Many companies, including Loblaw Companies Ltd., Longo’s, Metro, Sobeys and Walmart Canada Corp., require brand-owner certified nutritional data.

To ensure your trading partners have visibility to your nutritional content, review and certify your product information using the Product Certification – Nutritional tool.

GS1 Canada is here to help ensure your nutritional products get certified!

Learn more about Product Certification today by reading our FAQs Go to myGS1 to log in to Product Certification now to continue certifying your products

For additional support, email ProductCertificationSupport@gs1ca.org.

For more information visit the Product Certification webpage.

---

SIAL Turns 20 at SIALCanadaConnect

SIAL Canada will be celebrating twenty years of innovation with a special one-day event on September 21, 2021. At SIALCanadaConnect, Dana McCauley and Isabelle Marquis, co-presidents of the SIAL Innovation Awards Jury, will review the major trends that impacted the Canadian food business over the last two decades, and a panel discussion with three of Canada’s most respected food industry professionals will provide insights into the future of food innovation. GS1 Canada is excited to once again be a partner at SIAL Canada. Join GS1 Canada and SIAL on September 21 for this 100% virtual event to celebrate the past and future of the food industry.

Register for the event here.

New Data Recipients at GS1 Canada

GS1 Canada is pleased to welcome the following new data recipients: