It is not simply a matter of checking off a product or even of creating a new product to ensure that it is recognized as a reserved designation.

The Act Respecting Reserved Designations and Added-Value Claims allows any group of people producing an agricultural or food product that differs significantly from common products in the same category to preserve their products’ special characteristics while preventing them from being counterfeited and misrepresented.

4.1 Group of persons

Designations are necessarily the result of a collective effort and thus may not belong to only one person or firm, since all the people who may produce the reserved designation product in accordance with the standards included in the approved specification manual are entitled to use that designation. For this reason the group must be structured and operate in an organized manner that allows everyone involved a voice. It is also vital that all those using the designation comply with established requirements and that their operations be subject to controls that apply to everyone.

A reserved designation requires one or more special, non-measurable characteristics not found in common products under the same designation. Contrary to the objective criteria used to define the composition or appearance of a designation, those defining reserved designations are often subjective and cannot be controlled during the manufacturing or production process, so that the product’s authenticity can be confirmed only through laboratory analysis.

Consequently, any credible designation is inextricably linked to product certification, which is primarily the result of an evaluation of the process involved in making the product rather than its final characteristics.