Basically there are four definitions at the act level: food, drug, cosmetic and device. Especially with the newer technology, we're seeing blurring across the lines.
If you think of yourself as a start-up company and you're getting ready to go through the device regulations, which are pretty complicated.... You have to meet all the requirements for clinical development, but then also quality, so you're lining up with that pathway. You would usually file the submission with Health Canada and then find out at that point that no, we think you're actually a drug. You should be on the drug side, or you have to meet both regulations. That is very late in the day. You've invested a lot of money at that point.
This would get out ahead. It would look at different product lines and be able to do it as a matter of keeping a schedule. The minister would propose and it would be like a ministerial regulation through an order. You go out and you consult and everybody gets a chance to weigh in, and then you schedule.
Then there is certainty. Once people see themselves as “I am a food” or “the kind of product I'm into is a food”, it just settles it down and gives certainty around the classification.