Currently, the following Certification Bodies are licensed to provide CanadaGAP® audit and certification services for all scopes of CanadaGAP certification:
Third-party Certification Bodies are licensed by the CanadaGAP Program to provide audit and certification services for CanadaGAP.
CanadaGAP Certification Bodies vary in their distribution of auditors, fees charged, regions/languages serviced, etc. When deciding on a Certification Body before enrolling in the CanadaGAP program, consider asking the following questions:
- What do you charge for an audit?
- Are there auditors in my area?
- What can I expect the auditor travel cost to be?
Certification Bodies are:
- Impartial and objective [third party from the CanadaGAP Program and the customer]
- Internationally accredited by a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and subject to oversight by the accreditation body relative to the CB’s conformity assessment and certification activities
- Trained professionals responsible for assessing the operation’s conformance to program technical requirements
Certification bodies are accredited by a national accreditation body, such as Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), for the ISO 17065:2012 standard and the CanadaGAP Program. The current scope of accreditation for certification bodies delivering audits and certification for the CanadaGAP Program is:
- Version 10.1 of the CanadaGAP Program Management Manual
- Version 10.0 of the CanadaGAP Food Safety Manuals
For further details relative to the accreditation held by each CanadaGAP certification body, please visit the certification body’s website, or the relevant accreditation body webpages:
Certification Bodies are responsible for:
- Auditor recruitment and training
- Audit scheduling and assignment to auditors
- Delivery of audits
- Supervision of auditors, performance monitoring and calibration
- Review of audit results and Corrective Action Requests
- Certification decisions
- Handling audit billings
- Maintaining auditor and program participant databases
- Publishing and maintaining a searchable online registry of certified operators
Certification Bodies interested in becoming licensed to deliver CanadaGAP services should contact info@canadagap.ca or call (613) 829-4711 for more information about the requirements. A copy of the application form is available here.