New rules coming | Proposed legislation would increase accountability of manufacturers
The modernization of Canada’s food safety regulations should benefit producers, says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Government officials met with food industry and consumer groups for two days in Gatineau, Que., last week to discuss draft regulations for implementing the Safe Food for Canadians Act, which Parliament passed in November 2012.
It is the first step in what is expected to be a thorough consultation process before the act comes into force. The government hopes the new regulations will be implemented by the middle of next year.
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The act is intended to consolidate and strengthen existing regulations under the Fish Inspection Act, the Canada Agricultural Products Act, the Meat Inspection Act and the food provisions of the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act.
“In essence, what it allows is for a modernizing and updating of legislation that has been in place for some time,” said Paul Mayers, vice-president of policy and programs with the CFIA.
The central feature of the new regulations is a proposal for licensing all food manufacturers in the country.
“That provides us with an important tool in terms of having an ongoing relationship with those who produce food and as well making more explicit the accountability of those who are manufacturing food for meeting the safety requirements,” he said.
There will also be a requirement for each food manufacturer to develop a preventive control plan, such as the hazard analysis critical control points system.
“That is perhaps the key modernizing feature,” said Mayers.
“All food businesses would have to assess their processes with respect to where risk might be introduced and develop specific plans to mitigate against those risks.”
Food importers will be required to put controls in place to ensure imported food complies with Canadian regulations.
There will be enhanced requirements for record keeping and recall plans and stiffer fines and penalties for companies that put consumer health at risk.
Another important feature is a stronger system for tracing products through the production chain to ensure unsafe food is identified and removed from the system more rapidly.
“That is a significant modern oversight tool that simply wasn’t contemplated to the same degree when the commodity-based legislation was put in place previously,” said Mayers.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture strongly supports the new food safety regulations.
“The (existing) system is getting extremely complex,” said CFA president Ron Bonnett.
“There was a lot of frustration. In some ways there wasn’t consistent enforcement across the country.”
A “transformation” of the CFIA will accompany the new regulations as it designs a new food inspection model to improve industry compliance and develops better training and improved recruitment of inspectors.
Merging four acts into one is expected to result in a single and consistent approach to inspection.
Inspectors will be given new tools to work with, including modern science facilities and equipment and a new integrated food laboratory network.
The regulations acknowledge that inspectors can now detect contaminants at much lower levels than they could when the existing regulations were enacted.
“We can never be satisfied to be static. We recognize that the risk environment continues to evolve,” said Mayers.
Bonnett said the transformation of the CFIA is happening at a time when Ottawa is slashing its budget.
“The whole concept is you offset having an inspector around every corner by having a system in place that works,” he said.
Mayers said the new regulations are aimed at processors rather than producers, but farmers will benefit.
“For the farmer, what it means is that he can be confident that he competes on a level playing field relative to imports.”
He said the new regulations will boost consumer confidence in food, and regulators will be able to respond quickly and efficiently when something goes wrong to prevent a food safety incident from snowballing and hurting the entire farm economy.
Bonnett agreed but said there are also potential threats to producers, especially those who ship products directly to consumers in other provinces, such as horticulture and egg producers. They will now have to be licensed.
Mayers said there will be extensive consultations with farm organizations and other groups as well as the general public throughout the summer and fall.
The goal is to publish the regulations in the Canada Gazette by early next year and have the new regulations in full force by the middle of 2015.
Bonnett said the original objective was to have the new act in force by the beginning of next year.
“Some people have questioned how long it’s taking to do this, but I think it’s likely better to do the consultation with the stakeholders and get the regulations right rather than trying to ram them through quickly,” he said.
