In early August 2023, Switch Grocery (who distributes Keto Chow in Canada, along with other keto brands) announced that due to changes in regulation and enforcement, they would be temporarily pausing their store. We would invite you to read their blog before continuing since it already contains many of the answers you may be looking for.
One critical point specific to Keto Chow is that Canada recommends 4700mg of potassium a day. Canada also does not allow supplements to have more than 99mg of potassium per serving. Keto Chow is designed to give you 1/3 of your daily nutrition and therefore has around 1600mg of potassium per serving.
This means that formula changes for our Canadian customers are necessary–which is a much larger task than simply updating some packaging.
Here is our plan for Keto Chow and Canada:
- We have already started the process of getting a new NPN with Health Canada for a Canada-specific version of Keto Chow that meets their 99mg of potassium per serving requirement.
- We are working on Canada-specific packaging FOR SPECIFIC FLAVORS that is in French and English. Only the very most popular flavors and sizes will be available in this Canada-specific packaging and only those will be able to be imported into Canada for distribution. This means that the selection of flavors will be limited. There will not be any newly launched flavors or any limited edition flavors available in Canada. The process of making these specific labels takes 2-4 months (each) and the minimum order requirements mean that only flavors that have proven to be extremely popular will go through this process.
- Once the new packaging designs are finalized, Switch will place an order for the quantities they want to import into Canada, and then a special production run will be started. These take 4-9 months depending on if there are any issues with supplies.
- Currently, Keto Chow does ship directly to Canadian addresses. It’s possible that at any point, Health Canada could decide to stop allowing the individual importing of packaging without French labeling. We have no way to predict if or when this may happen. Shipping from our location to Canadian customers also means that the recipient of the packages often is required to pay additional import duties before delivery. This is also a mixed-bag and we have no way to know what packages will be charged additional fees by the Canadian Government, and which will not.
We are hopeful that sometime in early Spring 2024, we will have regulatory approval and finalized Canadian packaging ready for Switch to unpause their business.
Stay in the know
Get the most up-to-date information from Switch Grocery’s website. They also have their social media profiles listed in their website footer.
