The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced a suite of regulatory changes aimed at reducing red tape and supporting economic resiliency for Canada's agricultural sector.

The regulatory changes include changes to the Health of Animals Regulations and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations:

Removing overly prescriptive requirements

• removing prescriptive labelling requirements for fresh fruits and vegetables
• reducing traceability labelling requirements for hatching eggs and chicks to align with current industry practices
• removing mandatory grading requirements for all produce intended for further processing, manufacturing, or preserving

Increasing flexibility and working faster

• updating import requirements to give veal producers move flexibility to optimize the value of their products
• having certain fresh fruits and vegetables grade standards managed by the Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation. This means these standards can be changed more quickly to meet the needs of the industry and encourage innovation and competition
• making it easier and faster to update animal import rules to align with international standards or new science

Leveling the playing field for the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector

• changing the rules for importing hatching eggs from the U.S. to a licensed Canadian hatchery so that they now require testing for Salmonella Enteritidis. This change matches domestic requirements and makes things fair for Canadian businesses

Links:

- Regulations Amending the Health of Animals Regulations and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations

- Overview of changes to labelling and grades of fresh fruits and vegetables to reduce red tape and support resilience

- Amendments to the IRD Hatching eggs and Feeder calves

   

 

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