Safe
Foods for Canadians
Canada
is known to have one of the strongest food safety systems in the world, which
is further strengthen through new safe foods for Canadians act by synchronizing
several sets of different regulations into a single set of modern regulations
to govern food safety. As Government of Canada finalized the SFCR in June 2018,
now there are one single regulation which has eventually phase-out previous 14
sets of regulations. The current system introduced has well informed, carefully
planned with the support of extensive consultations from diverse industry
sectors including food businesses, food experts, everyday Canadians, and
trading partners abroad in addition to the public consultations on the
SFCR. These activities underline the
Government of Canada’s commitment to new regulatory system to be more agile,
transparent and responsive, where open approach to regulatory development
serves as the foundation for public trust both in Canada and beyond borders.
The new consolidated act and regulations, which came into force on January 15,
2019, expected to protect Canadian citizens by making the food system even
safer by focusing on prevention and allowing for faster removal of unsafe food
from the marketplace. They will also position Canadian food businesses to act
on new opportunities, be more competitive, and grow new markets.
Nonetheless,
Canadian Food Inspection Agency acts as the leading agency for implementation
of World Trade Organization’s Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures, which plays a significant role in the three official international
standard-setting bodies (ISSBs) to promote science-based international standards.
The Codex Alimentarius (Codex) standards provide the foundation for robust
domestic regulatory systems and contribute to a predictable trade environment,
reducing business risks and facilitating market access. On the other hand,
international approaches to food safety are changing dynamically, where Codex
maintains food standards, guidelines and codes of practices that promote the
use of systems-based, preventive approaches for the food safety. Hence, these
strategies integrates Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
principles, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), and Good Agricultural
Practices (GAPs) to address safety and quality along the entire food production
and distribution continuum by identifying and controlling hazards in order to
prevent food safety problems. These systems-based approaches recognize that
those who prepare or import food have the primary responsibility for the safety
of their products and must implement preventive programs to identify and
control hazards.
Modern
trends in the developed world is vertically integrating latest developments in
the field of food safety where several countries have made significant progress
adopting the modern approaches described by Codex as they modernize their own
food safety systems. i.e., the United States has introduced the Food
Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and associated regulations that grant new
and expanded authorities to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enhance
the safety of the U.S. food supply. Hence, Canada and the United States are
working together to harmonize these new regulatory approaches between the two
countries where possible, including approaches on food safety. Under
the Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC), the CFIA has been working
with its counterparts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration on a number of food safety initiatives, some of which
will be furthered by the proposed Regulations.
Objectives
One
of the key objectives of the proposed Regulations are to apply internationally
recognized standards for ensuring food safety for the food which are imported
into or prepared in Canada for interprovincial trade or for export. This would
better prevent food safety incidents and assist in rapidly removing unsafe food
from the market when incidents occur.
On
the other hand, it intended to support market access for Canadian exporters
while catchup pace with food safety modernization efforts in other countries,
such as the United States, who are moving to systems-based approaches, which
will further strengthen the Canada’s reputation for having a world-class food
safety system.
Most
importantly, consolidate 13 food commodity-based regulations plus the
food-related provisions of the CPLR to a single set of more outcome-based
requirements (i.e. requiring an expected result instead of listing steps to
achieve the expected result), where appropriate. Hence, new act would improve
consistency, enable innovation and flexibility, and level the playing field
across foods and between importers and domestic preparers of food for export or
interprovincial trade.
The
Regulatory Framework
The
proposed Regulations contain 17 parts and would include requirements
respecting the following:
Trade;
Licenses;
Preventive
Control Measures;
Traceability;
Commodity-specific
Requirements;
Recognition
of Foreign Systems;
Ministerial
Exemptions;
Inspection
Legends;
Packaging;
Labelling;
Grades
and Grade Names;
Seizure
and Detention; and
Organic
Products.
Some
of the requirements would be phased in to reflect different levels of industry
readiness and the concerns of small businesses that are involved in importing
food, or preparing food for export or for interprovincial trade. The SFCA also
provides for authority to incorporate by reference in the Regulations documents
that are internally or externally generated as of a particular date or that may
change over time. The flexibility to change an incorporated document would
allow the CFIA to make its regulatory framework more responsive to concerns of
industry and consumers by responding more promptly, where necessary, to modern
science and innovations, which might otherwise require regulatory change.
Before making changes to internally generated, incorporated documents that may
change from time to time, the CFIA would consult with stakeholders in a similar
way as consultations for regulatory changes and in accordance with the CFIA’s
Incorporation by Reference (IBR) Policy.
Key
Food Safety Elements
The
proposed Regulations would establish three key food safety elements:
Licenses:
As
to the proposed Regulations, licenses would be required for food importers, for
persons (e.g. food businesses) preparing food for export or for interprovincial
trade, with some exceptions, and for persons slaughtering food animals from
which meat products for export or interprovincial trade may be derived. License
applications would require certain information from the applicant regarding
their identity (e.g. business name) and business activities, which would inform
risk-based oversight. The proposed license would be valid for a period of two
years for a fee of approximately $250, and could be suspended or cancelled
in cases of non-compliance. Regulated parties would be able to apply for one or
multiple licenses.
Traceability:
The
proposed Regulations are intended to apply international standards for
traceability established by Codex to persons importing, exporting or interprovincially
trading food, as well as to other persons holding a license issued under the
SFCA. It also applicable to growers and harvesters of fresh fruits or
vegetables that are to be exported or traded interprovincially. Electronic or
paper records would be required to be prepared and kept in order to track food
forward to the immediate customer (e.g. a retailer or another food business)
and backwards to the immediate supplier (i.e. one step forward, one step back
along the supply chain), but retailers would not be required to trace forward
their sales to consumers.
As a
specific circumstance, the proposed regulations would require that traceability
information be provided, upon the Minister’s request, within 24 hours, or
some shorter period, if the information is considered necessary to identify or
respond to a risk of injury to human health, or some longer period if the
information is not considered necessary for a recall that is or may be ordered.
The information would need to be provided in French or in English and, where
electronic, in a format that could be imported and manipulated by standard
commercial software. The information would need to be accessible in Canada.
Preventive
Controls and Preventive Control Plan (PCP):
The
proposed regulations would require food subject to the regulations and
activities (i.e. importing, preparing meat products for export or
interprovincial trade) to meet food safety requirements and that those
activities be conducted in a manner that is consistent with internationally
recognized agricultural and manufacturing practices (i.e. GAPs, GMPs and
HACCP). The proposed Regulations would address the following key preventive
control elements:
Sanitation,
pest control, and non-food agents;
Conveyances
and equipment;
Conditions
respecting establishments;
Unloading,
loading and storing;
Competency
(i.e. for staff);
Hygiene;
Communicable
diseases and lesions; and
Investigation
and notification, complaints and recall.
In
addition to the given three key food safety elements, certain
commodity-specific requirements for food safety would remain in place where
appropriate, i.e., the current regulations require imported meat products to be
sourced from a country with an inspection system that is approved by the
Minister under the MIA. This requirement would be maintained in the proposed
Regulations.
With
some exceptions, regulated parties are required to produce and maintain a
written preventive control plan demonstrating how the preventive controls and
other requirements (e.g. for packaging and labeling) are met. On the other
hand, regulated parties have the flexibility to apply the preventive controls
and other measures on an outcome-based approach where appropriate, to demonstrate
that their operations and food products comply with the proposed regulations.
The
steps related to the preparation of a PCP should be based on HACCP principles
and would include, where applicable:
A
description of the biological, chemical, and physical hazards which could
contaminate the food, the measures used to prevent or eliminate those hazards,
and evidence that the measures are effective;
A
description of critical control points (steps at which a control can be applied
and that is essential to prevent or eliminate the hazard), their related control
measures, and evidence that they are effective;
A
description of the critical limits (i.e. the limit at which a hazard is
acceptable without compromising food safety) for each critical control point;
The
procedures for monitoring the critical control points in relation to their
critical limits;
A
description of the corrective action procedures for each critical control
point;
A
description of the procedures used to verify the implementation that the PCP
meets the requirements of the SFCA and the proposed regulations;
Documents
which can demonstrate that the information has been recorded on time and where
PCP has been implemented with respect to the foregoing.
As
a standard requirement with subject to certain exceptions, a written PCP would
be required for:
Every
license holder who imports food or prepares food to be sent or conveyed from
one province to another;
Every
person who grows or harvests fresh fruits or vegetables to be exported or to be
sent or conveyed from one province to another;
Every
license holders preparing fish products or meat products to be exported;
Every
person, including a license holder, exporting food who requires or requests an
export certificate from the CFIA.
References
