Gary Gnirss

  In 1991, I joined Bulcan Foodbev Consultants.

Previously I worked for the Federal government of Canada, (Consumer and Corporate Affairs Canada), in London, (Ontario), and Toronto in a regulatory affairs position. The position involved both domestic and imported foods. I also had the opportunity to train new employees and liaise with interagency groups and other governments.

My background is in microbiology, biochemistry and biotechnology. I earned my degree at the University of Guelph. The emphasis of my studies was food and industrial related, which just happens to complement well with food law.

From 1993 to 1997 I served on the Board of Directors for the Toronto section of the Canadian Institute of Food Science & Technology, (CIFST). From 1998 and for about 20 years, I have acted as the Chair of the Government & Regulatory Affairs Scientific Expert Panel of CIFST.

In January 1996 I cofounded the company Legal Suites Inc., and serve as its president. The idea in those days of providing new, innovative and knowledge-based solutions to industry to make the management of compliance easier was novel. Today, we are delivering on the ideas that inspired the creation of Legal Suites Inc.

I have also had the opportunity to serve as an advisor to Ad Standards, which is the organization responsible for the clearance of all radio and television food and alcohol ads. I have also been writing the Regulatory Column in Food in Canada, (FIC), since 1997, (one of Canada’s largest food publications / http://www.foodincanada.com). It may be obvious to many that I have changed my photo in FIC since 1997. This is how I stay young and keep motivated to write about food laws and regulations for more than 25 years. 

I welcome the opportunity to host conferences or present informative or continuing education seminars and workshops. For more than two decades now I have been working in cooperation with NSF, in presenting workshops on US and Canadian regulatory issues such as food labelling, nutrition labelling, basic labelling and ingredient labelling. In 2019 we migrated most of our existing course offerings for online delivery and have since expanded course offerings.

  I, like Gary, was employed by the Government of Canada, Consumer and Corporate Affairs, as a Food Specialist in 1989.  I am sincerely grateful for my experiences within the government offices, as a Food Specialist, because I gained such a wide variety of knowledge.  We dealt with so many different types of foods, and the labelling issues around them, but mainly from an enforcement angle.  It takes a special kind of person to enforce the rules, and regulations governing food labelling and advertising.  I grew restless and must admit I did not fit the government mould. 

I discovered my character favoured a more entrepreneurial avenue to express my abilities and achieve my goals.  So I launched into the business of helping clients with their food and general consumer goods labelling and advertising efforts; there was a massive void there, and I just happened to have the expertise to jump right in and get the work done and that’s how Bulcan Foodbev Consultants Inc. was born in 1990. 

For almost twenty years I have been involved in the food industry and have passed on my knowledge and understanding of these rules and regulations ever since. 

Now Bulcan Foodbev Consultants (A Division of Legal Suites Inc.), aka BFB Consultants, takes charge of the hands-on regulatory food labelling consulting services.  We have built a substantial client base over the years. It takes a lot of hard work and attention to detail to meet our clients’ needs.

Several years back, Gary and I dived into Legal Suites Inc. because we envisioned a future where information technology could be more user-friendly.  So Legal Suites Inc. is there to help customers get comfortable working with regulations and gain confidence in the information they are using to achieve their goals. 

In-class and virtual online training sessions help our customers achieve their compliance goals. My next goal is to make our classroom programs more accessible to the globe. Sign up for our Newsletters to receive updates on upcoming seminars. Watch for webinar training sessions for the Food Suite® Compliance Series.

A few other things about me that you might like to know is that I am a mother of two brilliant and very talented children.  I was awarded with the Woman of the Year Award 1999, Women in Food Industry Management.  I have organized the CIFST National Regulatory Workshop (1996).  I served on the Board of Directors of Women in Food Industry Management.