Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration sign a food safety systems recognition arrangement

At the end of April, Paul Mayers, Vice-President, Policy and Programs at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Anil Arora, Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Products and Food Branch at Health Canada and Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signed an arrangement recognizing that our respective food safety control systems provide a similar level of protection.

“Canada and the U.S. have confidence in each other’s regulatory systems”, said Paul Mayers. “Cooperation between our countries is fundamental to providing and contributing to a safe food supply.”

The signing of this arrangement is a major achievement under the Canada – U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC). “This collaboration between Canada and the U.S. will result in better aligned food safety regulatory systems and allow us to better protect the health and safety of our citizens”, said Anil Arora.

Through the RCC, Canada and the U.S. work together to improve trade opportunities and to enhance the health and safety of citizens from both countries.

“Under the U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council, the countries intend to better align their food safety regulatory systems, reduce unnecessary duplication, enhance information sharing, and to the extent possible, leverage resources so that the agencies can better meet their public health objectives,” said Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, FDA.

The recognition arrangement offers benefits to Canada and the U.S. by enabling the importing country to take into consideration the oversight of the exporting country when prioritizing its inspection activities. Furthermore, importers will have greater confidence that a product meets the country’s requirements. Imports into Canada must continue to meet Canadian requirements, and imports into the U.S. must continue to meet all applicable U.S. requirements.

Also recently, the CFIA published its Foreign Food Safety Systems Recognition Framework.  The Framework, which was developed following a consultation, guides the Agency in determining whether or not to recognize the food safety systems of a foreign country. Foreign food safety systems recognition is based on comprehensive laws, implementation and oversight programs, and monitoring of regulatory performance.