Canada — Chocolate and Cocoa Products

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Canada received 25 FDA import refusals in Chocolate and Cocoa Products between 2023-Q4 and 2026-Q3. Volume peaked at 5 in 2026-Q3, with the trend rising sharply year-on-year. The most-cited issues are unsafe color additive, no net quantity, and nutrition labeling. Measured against US import value, that runs at 3.0 refusals per $1 billion of imports of this commodity from Canada over the last 3 years.

Exporting from Canada? Get an email when shipments from Canada are refused at the US border — before your buyers ask.

Key figures

If you import chocolate and cocoa products from Canada

Lower risk. Canada ranks 7th of 8 origins shipping Chocolate and Cocoa Products to the US on refusals per $1 billion of US imports, at 3.0 — above 14% of them.

least riskmost risk

Hazard or paperwork
Of 25 refusals in the last 3 years, 20 were hazard findings and 5 paperwork alone.
Where refusals happen
DNBI — North Border, the Canadian land border (20); DSEI — Southeast (5).
Riskiest months
June, September, January, by refusals since 2020.
Test for before shipping
unsafe color additive (17), unsafe food additive (2), Salmonella (1).
Paperwork to get right
no net quantity (5), ingredients not listed (4), nutrition labeling (4).

FDA does not publish how many entries it examines, so no page can state a true probability of refusal; these are the figures that are published.

Quarterly refusals, last 12 quarters

2023-Q4: 1 hazard 1 2023-Q4 2023-Q4: 1 — 1 hazard, 0 paperwork 2024-Q1: 1 hazard 1 2024-Q1 2024-Q1: 1 — 1 hazard, 0 paperwork 2024-Q2: 1 paperwork 2024-Q2: 2 hazard 3 2024-Q2 2024-Q2: 3 — 2 hazard, 1 paperwork 2024-Q3: 2 hazard 2 2024-Q3 2024-Q3: 2 — 2 hazard, 0 paperwork 0 2024-Q4 2024-Q4: 0 — 0 hazard, 0 paperwork 2025-Q1: 3 hazard 3 2025-Q1 2025-Q1: 3 — 3 hazard, 0 paperwork 2025-Q2: 1 hazard 1 2025-Q2 2025-Q2: 1 — 1 hazard, 0 paperwork 2025-Q3: 1 hazard 1 2025-Q3 2025-Q3: 1 — 1 hazard, 0 paperwork 2025-Q4: 4 hazard 4 2025-Q4 2025-Q4: 4 — 4 hazard, 0 paperwork 2026-Q1: 1 hazard 1 2026-Q1 2026-Q1: 1 — 1 hazard, 0 paperwork 2026-Q2: 1 paperwork 2026-Q2: 2 hazard 3 2026-Q2 2026-Q2: 3 — 2 hazard, 1 paperwork 2026-Q3: 3 paperwork 2026-Q3: 2 hazard 5 2026-Q3 2026-Q3: 5 — 2 hazard, 3 paperwork

hazard findings labelling & registration

Show the numbers
QuarterRefusalsHazardPaperwork
2023-Q4110
2024-Q1110
2024-Q2321
2024-Q3220
2024-Q4000
2025-Q1330
2025-Q2110
2025-Q3110
2025-Q4440
2026-Q1110
2026-Q2321
2026-Q3523

By commodity, last 156 weeks

Commodity Refusals 1 refusal per Per $1B US imports Most-cited hazard
Chocolate-Cocoa 25 50,297 t 3.0 unsafe color additive
All products with import tonnes on record 25 50,297 t

"1 refusal per X t": tonnes of the same product imported for every one, over the same 156 weeks. A dash means fewer than 5 in the window, or under 1,000 t a year imported, too few to rate; the total row pools every product that has import tonnes on record.

Recent refusals

Data and downloads

Download all 25 entries (CSV) — every refusal behind this page, with its import division, FDA product code, charges and whether it was a hazard finding or paperwork.

The file holds entries up to 2026-09-28. To get new ones for Canada by email, watch Canada.