Benefits
of Safe Food for Canadians Act
The Safe
Food for Canadians Act synchronize several parts of the legislation which
includes the Canadian Agricultural Products Act, the Fish Inspection
Act, the Meat Inspection Act, and the food provisions of the Consumer
Packaging and Labelling Act. These acts were created during different time
intervals due to their criticality to the food trade and consumer safety of
Canadian citizens and trade. However, modern food safety and trade regulations
require more comprehensive updated simplified systems than those of the
pervious acts where Safe Food for Canadians Act bridges the gap while
introducing new tools to manage modern food
safety risks, hence helping to simplify the process to ease the industry
stakeholders. The synchronization will create a greater consistency in
rules and regulations, while providing consumers with a safer food supply,
where legislation will also create new export opportunities for Canadian
producers, and enhance the protection of imported food commodities. Thus, new
act has made Canadian food safety system stronger while reducing overlaps for
Canadian food producers, where act provides industry with clear, consistent and
straight forward inspection and enforcement rules so they can best meet their
responsibility provide safe food for consumers. Further, act strengths Canada's
world class food safety system while providing greater consistency for Canadian
businesses, whether they produce food for the domestic or the international
markets.
Traceability is the ability to track any food through all
its stages of production, processing and distribution, which is an increasingly
important element of food safety. Thus, legislation gives the CFIA the ability
to develop innovative regulations to trace and to take action on potentially
unsafe food commodities with more stringent controls on prohibition against
selling food commodities that have been recalled. Nonetheless, the consumers
will be safer from threats related to food commodity tampering, deceptive
practices and hoaxes, where Government has new means to take swift action
against these kinds of activities and to build additional safety into the food
system through the food producer or importer to the consumer. Thus, applicable
penalties and fines also increase to deter willful or reckless threats to
health and safety.
In
addition, adoption of the new act will provide more authority with clarity in rules
and regulations for Canadian food commodity exporters and for trading partners
importing food commodities to Canada. The newly introduced import control
measures will help improve the existing import safety measures by clearly
prohibiting the entry of potentially unsafe food commodities into Canada, where
act has provisions to register or license importers, while binding them
accountable for the safety of the food commodities they brought into the
country. On the other hand, more countries are strengthening their import
measures on food items in recent years, where they required that the foods
imported be certified, reflecting a growing international effort to ensure food
safety. Hence, the new legislation provides the CFIA the authority to
certify all food commodities for export, allowing for a consistent approach to
Canadian export certification. Nonetheless, new legislation has aligned
Canada’s food safety system with its major trading partner USA, where
the Food Safety Modernization Act will accept Safe Food for Canadians
Act allowing Canadian export certification to provide more flexible, modern and
timely responses to new international trade requirements. It also enables
Canadian exporters to be more competitive abroad and open access to an even
greater number of international markets by further aligning world class food
safety systems with that of its key trading partners.
Major
Changes to Previous Regulations
The
new regulations include requirements of previous 17 parts including 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;
Organic
Products.
Some
of these requirements are 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. Nonetheless, SFCA also
provides 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. Thus, flexibility to change the regulatory framework through an
incorporated document whenever required, would allow the CFIA to make its 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. Incorporated documents that may change from time to
time, but before making changes to internally generated documents; 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.
Exceptions
and Exemptions
Any
exception or exemptions are set out in the new regulations, based on an analysis
of the food safety risk that may cause any hazardous effects to the general
public. Hence, an exception from the written PCP requirements is proposed for
some regulated parties that generate $30,000 or less in annual gross food sales
(i.e. micro-sized businesses). However, this exception will not apply to
regulated parties that slaughter food animals from which meat products for
export or inter-provincial trade are derived, or that prepare meat products,
dairy products, fish, eggs, processed egg products, or processed fruits and
vegetables, or if an export certificate is requested.
Exemptions
from licensing, preventive controls, and written PCP requirements are also
proposed, unless an export certificate is requested, for
Alcoholic
beverages;
Food
additives; and
Some
of the unprocessed foods that will be further prepared (e.g. grains, oilseeds,
pulses and other foods such as green coffee beans and hops) before consumption.
Such foods must be labelled with the words “For Further Preparation Only”, and
may not be prepackaged food for consumers, which are listed in a schedule to
the new regulations.
The
new regulations would also include certain exemptions similar to those that
exist in current federal regulations, such as food for personal use, food
carried on any conveyance that is intended for the crew or passengers, or food
for analysis, evaluation, research, or a food exhibition provided that the food
is part of a shipment that weighs 100 kg or less or, in the case of eggs, is
part of a shipment of five or fewer cases. Food that passes only in transit
through Canada is exempt, provided the shipment travels in bonds.
Importation
of non-compliant food or inter-provincial trade of non-compliant food to be
subsequently brought into compliance (e.g. through relabeling the food) would
be permitted provided that the food is imported by a license holder, is clearly
labelled with “For Further Preparation Only” and is brought into compliance
within three months from the day on which it was imported or traded inter-provincially,
unless a longer time period is granted by the Minister.
Export
Under
the SFCA, the Minister may issue export certificates, where new regulations
would provide the process by which a regulated party may request an export
certificate, if there is a requirements, i.e., fulfill a foreign government requirement.
Nevertheless, exporters are permitted to meet foreign customer requirements
that may differ from certain requirements of the new regulations. But those
differences are required to be substantiated by documentation (e.g. a contract
or a description of a foreign government requirement).
Membership
Requirements for Buyers and Sellers of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
The Licensing
and Arbitration Regulations were cancelled, where new regulations require
that buyers and sellers of fresh fruits and vegetables be members of the Fruit
and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC) to obtain an exemption from
the trade of fresh fruit or vegetable provisions in Part 2,
Division 2 of the new regulations. The DRC is a non-profit,
membership-based organization serving the produce sector that offers dispute
resolution services (e.g. mediation and arbitration) to its members, where over
80% of fresh fruit and vegetable buyers and sellers are already members of the
DRC.
Meat
Changes
to previous requirements for meat will increase the alignment with requirements
for other foods regulated by the CFIA to the extent possible given
meat-specific food safety risks, i.e. previous mandatory inspection
requirements for all imported meat products has been removed, and replaced with
targeted inspection requirements based on risk. Nonetheless, mandatory
licensing of meat storage facilities also removed except for persons who would
handle and store imported meat products for inspection.
Exemptions
for some existing meat product–specific requirements are introduced for meat
products, i.e. frozen pepperoni pizza; that contain a mixture of ready-to-eat
meat and other non-meat ingredients, which are treated as more similarly to all
other prepared foods.
Recognition
of Foreign Systems
The
new regulations prescribe the standards to be met for the minister to recognize
a foreign system of inspection for meat products and shellfish, and to
recognize systems for preparing meat that are used in meat product establishments.
The new regulations also provide for circumstances in which ministerial
recognition must be suspended or cancelled. On the other hand, systems that are
recognized under the MIA or FIA will be continue to be recognized under the new
regulations.
Ministerial
Exemptions
The
authority for the minister to exempt food from requirements for the purpose of
test-marketing a food that is new or of alleviating shortages has been expanded
to all foods. Thus, ministerial exemptions can be granted only when they would
not result in a risk of injury to human health and, with regards to test-market
exemptions, when they would not confuse or mislead the public or disrupt the
normal trading patterns of industry or the normal patterns of food pricing.
Inspection
Legends
Provisions
related to inspection legends that existed in previous commodity-specific
regulations made under the CAPA, where the FIA and the MIA will be carried over
as usual under the new regulations.
Container
Sizes and Standard Weights
Requirements
for standard weight and container sizes that previously existed in
commodity-specific regulations under the CAPA, the MIA, the FIA and the CPLA have
being included in the new regulations.
Labeling and Standards of Identity
The
new regulations has made some changes to requirements relating to labeling and
standards of identity provisions, i.e. for processed eggs, where new changes has
grouped similar provisions together and reduced duplication and differences
where possible.
Labeling
provisions have being included in the body of the new regulations whereas
standards of identity has incorporated by reference in the new regulations and
maintained by the CFIA (in accordance with CFIA’s Incorporation by
Reference Policy).
Previous
requirements of the CPLA and its regulations apply to prepackaged food sold in
Canada, including food sold within a province, which has been included in the new
regulations. The intra-provincial application of these requirements will be
maintained.
Grade
Requirements
Grade
requirements in previous regulations have been consolidated into two documents,
which has being incorporated by reference in the new regulations:
1. The new Beef, Bison, and Veal
Carcass Grade Requirements shall be maintained by the Canadian Beef
Grading Agency (CBGA) according to conditions outlined in a Memorandum of
Understanding between the CBGA and the CFIA; and
2. The new Canadian Grade Compendium would
consolidate all other Canadian grade requirements in a single document
organized by commodity and maintained by the CFIA.
Organic
Products
Under
the Organic Products Regulations, 2009, only the producers of organic
products and anyone labeling and packaging organic products are required to be
certified. Thus, new regulations has expand certification to include other
service providers to allow organic integrity to be maintained along the entire
supply chain. In addition, the new regulations has included the organic
certification of aquaculture products too.
Reference
