Selling Herbal Products in Canada

A friend of mine makes these incredible herbal salves and sells them at local farmer’s markets, or to her own clients in her therapeutic horses-helping-kids program. So I wondered if I could carry them in my Canadian LTYG Shoppe and offer them to my readers.

Well I asked my gal Isabel, who monitors all compliance issues with our Shoppes in all 4 countries, and oy vey – it is a process to ‘officially’ sell any kind of herbal product in Canada!

First, you have to start with GMP practices in order to get a site license:

“To be legally sold in Canada, all natural health products must have a product licence, and the Canadian sites that manufacture, package, label and import these products must have site licences.

To get product and site licences, specific labelling and packaging requirements must be met, good manufacturing practices must be followed, and proper safety and efficacy evidence must be provided.”

Site Licensing

All Canadian manufacturers, packagers, labellers, and importers of natural health products must have site licenses.

To get a licence, sites must maintain proper distribution records, and have proper procedures for product recalls. For the handling, storage and delivery of their products, and demonstrate that they meet good manufacturing practice requirements.

Now in CANADA – Absorb Plus VEGAN Elemental Diet Shake!

What Classifies as a Natural Health Product (NHP)?

But wait – you’re just making a few pots of herbal salve that are applied to the skin, you’re not making pills or anything that will be ingested. People have made herbal salves for thousands of years. How can that be something that requires government regulation? I’ll just quote directly from the gov’t website to answer that:

Natural health products (NHPs) are naturally occurring substances that are used to restore or maintain good health. They are often made from plants, but can also be made from animals, microorganisms and marine sources. They come in a wide variety of forms like tablets, capsules, tinctures, solutions, creams, ointments and drops.

Natural health products, often called “complementary” or “alternative” medicines, include:

  • vitamins and minerals
  • herbal remedies
  • homeopathic medicines
  • traditional medicines like traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic (East Indian) medicines
  • probiotics
  • other products like amino acids and essential fatty acids

Many everyday consumer products, like certain toothpastes, antiperspirants, shampoos, facial products and mouthwashes are also classified as natural health products in Canada.

FAQs about ‘officially’ selling herbal products in Canada

Here is another link to help you get started with frequently asked questions about this endeavour.

The standard operating procedures (SOPs) required for GMP compliance are hundred of pages. So this would be a big endeavour to take on.

The bottom line: We cannot sell any of her products in our shoppe if they don’t have an NPN (Natural Product Number) and in order to get an NPN, she will have to go through the entire process outlined above.

Well, all I can say is, thank god we don’t have Health Canada agents patrolling farmers markets and craft fairs! I’ve noticed a number of people selling locally-made plant-based items on Facebook and sometimes even from their own website. Perhaps if you’re a small seller, Health Canada isn’t going to worry about you.

I hope that helps you out, if you’ve been looking for this information. My friend hadn’t been able to find clear information before, so that’s why I put this post together for other people too, who might need the same answers.