• The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations will become effective one week from today, on January 15, 2019. As previously reported on this blog, Canada proposed these regulations in January 2017 to implement the Safe Foods for Canadians Act (SFCA), which was adopted on June 7, 2012.
  • The final Safe Food for Canadians Regulations were published in June 2018. These regulations will replace 14 sets of regulations, including the Fish Inspection Act, the Canada Agricultural Products Act, the Meat Inspection Act, and the Consumer Packaging and Labeling Act (CPLA). The consolidated regulations include licensing requirements and implement preventive control requirements.
  • The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) webpage on the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations includes resources to help businesses comply with the new requirements, such as an interactive tool to determine if a company needs a license and a toolkit on what steps should be taken to become compliant with the new law.
  • When the final Safe Food for Canadians Regulations were published, the Canadian government explained, “Once the SFCR are fully in force, Canadian food businesses exporting foods that are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can leverage their SFCR license to demonstrate that their food safety controls meet their U.S. importers’ requirements under the U.S. Foreign Supplier Verification Program.”