No, CFIA has limited resources. Not everyone will have an inspection, let alone every year. CFIA will be using a risk-based system to determine who needs an inspection. Risk factors include, among others: inherent product risk, the activities that the company is involved in (some are considered higher-risk than others), prior inspection results, compliance history, previous violations or incidents, etc. One of the elements that will affect the risk profile is whether the company has an established food safety program in place, whether they are certified, and how closely aligned their certification program is with the regulations.

CanadaGAP requirements have been examined in detail by CFIA, who has determined that the CanadaGAP standard is 100% aligned with the food safety elements required by the regulations. The letter that CFIA sent to the industry on January 15, 2019 mentions CanadaGAP by name as a model system for meeting the food safety preventive controls that companies must have in place to comply with the regulations.

February 6th, 2019 at 12:19 pm