The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is taking action to preserve the integrity of Canada’s food safety system, while safeguarding its animal and plant resource base.
The CFIA has activated its business continuity plan, which introduces a temporary suspension of low-risk activities that do not immediately impact the production of safe food for Canadians in order to prioritize critically important services during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The food safety system remains strong.
This approach to temporarily suspend low-risk activities allows the CFIA to continue to safeguard the health and safety of its staff while refocusing efforts in areas of higher risk and towards activities that are critical to the safety of food, as well as animal and plant health.
The Government of Canada is working hard with partners at all levels to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as it develops. This includes continuing to perform the critical activities and to deliver needed services to preserve the integrity of Canada’s food safety system.
CFIA is prioritizing:
Food safety investigations and recalls
Animal disease investigations
Inspection services
Export certification
Import inspection services
Emergency management
Laboratory diagnostics in support of the above
CFIA is temporarily suspending:
Food inspections and investigations not related to food safety
Low risk surveillance or sampling activities (food, plant and animal)
Inspections of preventive control plans and plant and animal inspections in areas of low risk
Low risk labelling and domestic facility inspections
Low risk feed, seed and fertilizer permissions
Additional information is available on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website.