Anyone have update on release of SFCR (Safe Food for Canadians Regs)
Hi to all who are either in Canada or export to Canada.............does anyone have an update on the release of the SFCR????? everything i see just says spring 2018, well spring has sprung and i'm getting antsy waiting for the doomsday clock to strike midnight
Hi to all who are either in Canada or export to Canada.............does anyone have an update on the release of the SFCR????? everything i see just says spring 2018, well spring has sprung and i'm getting antsy waiting for the doomsday clock to strike midnight
Hi Scampi,
Just for the uninitiated -
BUMP
anyone?
My CFIA contact is under the impression it won't be out until June - July
thanks itreatpets
My organic certifier yesterday responded that there was so much industry feedback that there will likely be another DRAFT open for consultation so perhaps we're looking at 2019 at this point
CFIA had stated that it would be spring 2018.
I had asked our CFIA inspector the exact same question and they didn't have an answer. It seems like the inspectors have no idea whats going on in regards to SFFC act.
It is typical of CFIA to continuously push back timelines. I would guess that it won't be out until 2019.
Yes, i finally broke down and emailed our inspector and received the same sort of comment as you did Roundeggs
I think they were expecting to slam it through as push what "great news" it is............it isn't less regulation is not the answer---governing ALL commodities equally is
I don't like how political inspection is---all to prevent trade barriers (which I understand is important) but should not be more important than safe food
99% of recalls that occur in Canada come out of establishments that do not have regular or any inspection/inspectors
The inspection coverage in Canada is largely based off of whatever the Americans are doing - because if we don't have the equivalent to them ( equivalent regulations and standards) then we cannot export. The SFFC is a Canadian response to try an maintain the equilibrium and to "keep up" with the Americans since they introduced FSMA.
The Canadian Inspectors have told me that there is a move to "Modernize" the way inspections are done. Registered facilities are going to be assessed on a risk basis and this will in turn affect the way that they are inspected into the future. Instead of having CFIA coverage 50% or 100% they will be placing more onus onto the facility. They will still be doing inspections but they will be more like an audit style. They will tell the facility what records/procedures they are going to review and then will go to facility and review. Any non-conformance will no longer require a CAR - the facility will give CFIA a date when they will be have remedied all non-conformance and on that date CFIA will come back and review. None of this is happening until 2019 though.
When the Americans introduced FSMA - a lot of training was provided and the person in the facility responsible for implementing and writing preventative controls was required to be trained to a PCQI.
The Canadian government has provided no training, no training requirement of the facility, and they haven't even fully trained their own inspectors as of yet.
The SFFC act largely impacts unregistered facilities as these place will now require a license and PC's. There should be training required.
The CFIA had multiple stakeholder information sessions and feedback sessions, they provided information on their web page, and now just seemed to have completely stalled out.
When the Americans introduced FSMA - a lot of training was provided and the person in the facility responsible for implementing and writing preventative controls was required to be trained to a PCQI.
The Canadian government has provided no training, no training requirement of the facility, and they haven't even fully trained their own inspectors as of yet.
Oh you give FDA waaayyyy too much credit.
Rules have been in effect for most of us for over a year, and they've only completed 7/16 chapters of their draft guidance.
My state hasn't adopted the rules yet, and they perform contract inspections on FDA's behalf.
We can all agree that everyone's governing body generally kinda sucks until the rules are at least two decades old.
You've got that right FFF
There is supposed to be a "learning partnership" between the feds and industry, I'm imaging similar to the PCQI, I have emailed repeatedly to sit on the board and I'm not even getting an email back. And I agree that there needs to be a national standard for HACCP and/or Food Safety Coordinators (right now any ole fool can hang a shingle out because they worked in a food service kitchen for 2 months and got a 30 minute training session)
For us, the big confusion is that they are dispensing of at least 9 different sets of federal laws, incorporating by reference what the feds thinks needs to stay and dumping everything else. The new "laws" are incredibly vague..........so let's say I process chicken, i've been processing safe chicken for 10 years, but now since you haven't regulated the mandatory room temps I decide it's cheaper to keep my room ambient. I have don't micro on the chicken and have VALIDATED the study under the worst possible conditions. Now we're supposed to have some fresh outta uni inspector tell me whether or not they accept my validation!!!!!!
We all know you can't fight the feds!!!
Oh and did we mention, no more commodity specific inspectors?!?!?! There supposed to just apply the rules with zero context :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
Yeah right,
Touche - FFF
Hi Everyone,
I attended the 14th Annual North American Food Safety Summit yesterday in Toronto. A CFIA executive director of programs presented on preparing to implement the Safe Food for Canadian Regulations.
They said that it will more than likely be summer 2018 and that they are looking at having a 6 month compliance period for companies to familiarize themselves with the new regulations.
Regards
Ashley
Thank you Ashley
How was the summit? I've gone before and found it to not be worth the time or expense
You're welcome. it was good. IBM had an interesting presentation on blockchain technology which is new to me. I only attended day one.
Hello - received this CFIA release yesterday...
Today, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Health, and the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced that final Safe Food for Canadians Regulations were published in Canada Gazette, Part II (CGII).
The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations will make our food system even safer by focusing on prevention and by reducing the time it takes to remove unsafe food from the marketplace.
The regulations will come into force on January 15, 2019. The period between the final publication of the regulations in CGII and coming into force will give businesses time to familiarize themselves with and prepare for the new requirements, including licensing, traceability and preventive controls. Some requirements will have to be met immediately upon coming into force, while others will be phased in over a period of 12-30 months based on food commodity, type of activity and business size.
Learn more about the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations: www.inspection.gc.ca/safefood
They've got a couple of interactive tools that companies can use to see exemptions and deadlines for traceability/PCP/Licensing specific to their activities. I'm probably late to the party with this info though haha.
Edit: Here's the link to the interactive tools.
To all,
I highly suggest you make time to go through all the associated documents......even if you are already federally registered
I have already emailed Ask CFIA twice about issues i have found in the associated docs (like some vague reference to water testing twice/year for chem? Really that's a $1200 test AND i cannot find the reference from the embedded link)
They have already started rolling out the risk based model but they started with meat about 2 years ago..............my inspector here has told me i may be down to once/2 years based on our FG and compliance history