1. Preamble

Reserved designation food products, whether fresh or processed, belong to the value-added product market. Products with high added values are subject to fundamentally different market rules compared with mass-produced products. To respond to the specific characteristics of the demand, production is usually tightly controlled and must comply with precise specification manuals in order to justify their added market value.

Once placed on sale, therefore, these foods have the following shared characteristics: their labels contain allegations or claims that in the eyes of certain consumers confer added value on the products.

For food production companies, this consumer segment represents a potentially lucrative market, providing them with numerous opportunities to increase their sales and profits. In return, these consumers have the right to demand authentic products.

For this reason, the Québec government passed the Act Respecting Reserved Designations (A20.02) in 1996. This legislation was enacted to control the designations that are assigned to agricultural and food products as an attestation of their production method, region, and specificity. Another objective of this legislation was to monitor the use of these designations in order to meet the obligations that result from the Act. It was replaced by the Act Respecting Reserved Designations And Added-Value Claims on June 15, 2008.

Section 9, paragraph 5 of the Act Respecting Reserved Designations and Added-Value Claims assigns to the Conseil des appellations réservées et des termes valorisants (CARTV) the responsibility of supervising the use of reserved designations. Chapter VI of the Act also assigns it the power to institute proceedings against anyone who uses a reserved designation for products that are not certified by an approved certification body.

The CARTV has a Supervisory Committee whose mission is to supervise the use of reserved designations and to recommend to the Board any appropriate actions that may prevent the illegal use of these designations.

Section 63 of the Act Respecting Reserved Designations and Added-Value Claims stipulates that no one may use a reserved designation in the advertising, labelling or display of any product, or in any related commercial documents, unless these products have been certified by an accredited certification body. Every breach of a Section 63 provision constitutes an offence and is liable to a fine of between $2,000 and $60,000, depending on the case.

Section 69 of this Act stipulates that the Board has the power to institute penal proceedings for an offence, in accordance with section 10 of the Code of Penal Procedure, R.S.Q., c-25.1.

The Board reserves the right to mandate Quebec's Attorney General to initiate any penal proceedings resulting from offences under section 63 of the Act.