About ACC Label

1990: Our starting point

What does ACC in our business name stand for?

Nutrition is our background, food our passion, and labelling our expertise. Those are the words Carole Fournier used to describe her field of work at the beginning of her career in the food industry.

In response to the flagrant lack of consultants in food labelling, Carole created À côté de la cuisine (French for “Next to the kitchen”) in 1990. She promoted her business (also referred to as ACC) with her slogan « While you focus your energies on your cuisine, we are close by to help … À côté de la cuisine ». This name and slogan embodied our desire to support food businesses in tasks often neglected either by lack of time or resources.

In 2001, À Côté de la Cuisine became ACC Label to facilitate the pronunciation for our non-francophone clients and better reflect the firm’s mission, i.e. helping the food industry make legally compliant food labels.

On December 6, 2012, ACC Label changed legal status and became Étiquetage ACC inc. ● ACC Label Inc.

Recognition based on our high-level expertise

ACC Label offers a highly specialized service and has earned an enviable reputation. We are often called upon by businesses throughout North America and Europe who wish to sell their products in Canada. They consult us for our expertise in:

• regulatory affairs related to food labelling
• nutritional analysis
• linguistic services

Collaboration with universities

ACC Label is proud to collaborate with McGill University. Since 2016, we offer 3-hour courses to first-year and second-year undergraduate students on the following subjects:

• Database Nutritional Analysis – Methodology for Reliable Results (as part of Applications of Food Fundamentals, Nutr. 217)
• The Food Label, a tool to make informed food choices (as part of Applications of Food Fundamentals, Nutr. 217)
• Canadian Food Labelling – The Food Industry’s Obligations (as part of Food Service Systems Management, Nutr. 345)

In January 2022 and 2023, ACC Label also collaborates with Laval University, in their “Integrated project in food product development”, for undergraduate students in Food Science (STA-3120). In this course, students are asked to develop an innovative food product and present their project to various expert consultants, much like in the Dragon’s Den TV show. As a guest expert, ACC Label’s role is to bring the students to think about the subtle regulatory requirements to which their product is subject.

The success of the first two collaborations with Laval University has set a trend likely to continue for several more years.

Other collaborations

ACC Label has often collaborated with organizations that support food companies from various countries in their plans to expand into Canada. For example, we have delivered lectures on various food labelling topics at the following events:

• SIAL Toronto 2019: Food Export USA and Trade Facilitator Organization (TFO)
• SIAL Montreal 2018: Food Export USA, TFO Canada and the Embassy of Tunisia)
• INPACQ Day of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec in 2018
• CIBIM (Carrefour des industries bioalimentaires de l’Île de Montréal), in 2017 and 2018
• Fancy Food Show in New York in 2015 (Food Export USA)

Media Exposure

ACC Label is occasionally invited by different media to comment on labelling or nutritional analysis, such as:

• the French counterpart of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television show, L’Épicerie;
• La Presse Plus, the most comprehensive French-language news site in North America; and
• radio shows.

ACC Label helps forge Canada’s food labelling regulations

By actively participating in the various regulatory consultations, ACC Label is:

• helping to shape Canadian food labelling regulations. We are very proud when our recommendations are included in the final regulations;
• always on the lookout for regulatory modifications before they come into force. We are always ready to advise our clients on their labelling obligations.

We were ready to apply the new legal requirements:

1.   November 24, 2022, when Health Canada published the new reference amounts used to determine the serving size in the Nutrition Facts table;
2.   October 20, 2022, when the new daily values for sodium and potassium were published by Health Canada;
3.   July 20, 2022, when the requirements for supplemented foods and the mandatory front-of-package nutrition symbol for foods high in saturated fat, sugar or sodium have been published;
4.   June 13, 2018, when the new Canadian Food Safety Regulations were published;
5.   December 14, 2016, when Health Canada published its regulatory amendments to improve nutrition labelling and ingredient and allergen declaration
6.   February 4, 2011, when the final regulations for enhanced labelling of food allergen sources, gluten and added sulphites were published;
7.   December 12, 2002, when nutrition labelling became mandatory in Canada.

Growth through acquisition

In the fall of 2022, ACC Label acquired Exact Translations, a Vancouver-based firm that has specialized in food labelling for 33 years. This first acquisition proved to be a promising one.

A product: an award

In addition to its food labelling consulting services, ACC Label created a product, the MesurACC®, for which we received the SIAL 2016 Innovation Award. The MesurACC, a typographical tool designed to verify food labels with respect to the various typographical requirements of food labelling regulations, is an invaluable tool for anyone working in food labelling.

Since then, the MesurACC® has considerably evolved. See our MesurACC page for more information.

Where is ACC Label heading?

Our dynamic team has great plans on the horizon. It’s too early to share what’s going on in our crystal ball, but follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook.

We hope to have the pleasure of working with you on your next labelling project. Ask us for a quote.