CHC members, Certification Bodies, auditors, customer representatives and CanadaGAP program participants gathered on March 8 at the Westin Ottawa for the first ever CanadaGAP Stakeholders’ Meeting.
Participants were welcomed by CHC Food Safety Management Committee Chair Paul LeBlanc, who provided an update on the CanadaGAP program and outlined achievements and progress made in 2010.
Participants were then invited to participate in a feedback session, where they participated in roundtable discussions addressing specific components of the CanadaGAP program (e.g., on-farm requirements of the program, CanadaGAP audits and auditors, customer requirements, delivery of service by Certification Bodies, etc.). Participant feedback was compiled and presented to the group at the end of the meeting. A summary of the feedback will be available at
www.canadagap.ca in April.
Customer panelists who also spoke at the meeting included Julie Powell (Sobeys), Jeff Hall (Metro), Aruna Spears (Loblaw Companies Ltd.) and Saul Morales (Sysco). Speaker presentations are available from the CHC National Office by contacting Katie MacKimmie at
kmackimmie@hortcouncil.ca.
We gratefully acknowledge the following sponsors: QMI-SAI Global, Guelph Food Technology Centre and Farm Credit Canada.