The Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA), which received Royal Assent in November 2012, establishes a modern and robust legislative framework for the safety of food commodities, marking the first step in the transformation of Canada’s food safety system.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) intends to pre-publish the proposed regulations under the SFCA in Canada Gazette Part I in late Fall 2014, with Canada Gazette Part II publication in mid-2015.
The changes to Canada’s regulatory framework for food inspection will not end in 2015, however. The CFIA, in the context of its Food Labelling Modernization Initiative, will pursue further changes as well in areas such as labelling, grades and standards of identity, requirements for transporters, warehouses and distribution centres.
Changes are also occurring in the US. The aptly named Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) represents the first major overhaul of US food safety regulations 1938. It includes seven major proposed rules – including Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food – will have the greatest impact on carriers. It establishes requirements for vehicles and transportation equipment, transportation operations, training and record-keeping.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance developed a food safety program to help carrier members comply. The approach was to develop a compliance program utilizing food safety building blocks, consisting of food safety prerequisites, the development of standard operating procedures and risk-based preventive control measures, and fully documented with automatic record keeping.
Please see the following CTA briefing note for more info and details: 140604-Canada’s Food Safety Regulatory Landscape