Question Period Note: FOOD SAFETY

• The Government of Canada has made key investments to its inspection activities in an effort to enhance food safety in Canada. At present, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has the resources it needs to deliver on its mandate for food safety, animal and plant health.

• Canada has one of the best food safety systems in the world.
• The Safe Food for Canadians Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, which came into force in 2019, provides a new approach for food safety and improves the ability to respond to non-compliances.
• Budget 2021 invested $31M over two years in renewed funding to allow the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to continue to apply and strengthen its risk management approach to food safety. The funding will allow for improved risk targeting for both domestic and imported foods and guide preventive and targeted food safety activities.

IF PRESSED ON COVID-19 …
• Food safety and consumer protection are key priorities of the Government of Canada.
• There is currently no scientific evidence that food or food packaging is a source or transmitter of the COVID-19 virus and there have been no reported cases.
• The government has taken steps for the ongoing delivery of critical Canadian Food Inspection Agency services during the pandemic to do its part to maintain Canada’s food supply, including prioritizing its meat inspection work.

IF PRESSED ON FOOD SAFETY IN MEAT PROCESSING PLANTS …
• This Government takes food safety seriously.
• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency conducts daily inspections at federally licenced meat processing establishments. The inspection approach is different for licence holders who produce foods other than meat, where daily inspection presence is not a requirement.

All food sold in Canada is expected to be safe, and it is industry’s responsibility to produce safe food. When there is reason to believe that a food is contaminated or does not follow federal regulations, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) may employ various compliance approaches and will typically initiate a process to investigate and recall products, if necessary.

The number of inspection staff changes due to seasonal requirements and is adjusted based on demand. The type and frequency of inspections done by CFIA vary by commodity, by risks, and mirror what is done in other countries (for ex., CFIA staff do full-time slaughter inspection and daily meat processing shift inspections just like USDA staff in US meat plants).

The CFIA does on-site visits once a day or more in meat processing plants in order to make them eligible for export to the US under the terms of a long-standing equivalency agreement. The CFIA delivers inspection activities in other food plants at a lower risk-based frequency that reflects the type of product being made, the type of consumer it is being made for, and the food business` compliance history.

On January 22, 2021, the federal government announced $162.6 million for CFIA over the next 5 years, and then $40 million per year of ongoing funding. These funds will augment CFIA's oversight and surveillance capacity in its domestic programs by dedicating resources to areas of highest risk.

The investment is critical to alleviating the resource pressures CFIA is facing due to increased demand and operational risks, which are a result of rapid growth in international trade, technology developments, changing consumer preferences and new food safety threats.

As part of its normal business, CFIA has been undertaking a series of initiatives to improve inspection delivery, achieve greater industry compliance with food safety requirements, and better protect consumers.

The Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA) and Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR), which came into force on January 15, 2019, is an example of this Government’s commitment to strengthen an already strong food safety inspection system. The regulations apply to imported, exported or inter-provincially traded food.

The new regulations are also consistent with international food safety standards, they strengthen Canada’s food safety system and enable industry to innovate and create greater market access opportunities for Canadian food products exported abroad.

These regulations help Canadian food businesses continue to have access to trading partners like the United States, who have already adopted similar regulations.

Budget 2021’s funding of $31M over two years will allow the CFIA to continue to strengthen its risk management approach to food safety through improved understanding of the dynamic risk landscape, both domestic and foreign, and to guide preventive and targeted food safety activities. This will be achieved through sustained verification activities of industry compliance with legislation and improved offshore preventive activities for all exported and imported food products.

KEY FACTS
• Budget 2021 provided the Canadian Food Inspection Agency with an additional $31M over two years to maintain its inspection activities and to strengthen and modernize its food safety inspection system.