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New SFCR guidance documents now available
The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) entered into force on January 15, 2019. To help staff and industry comply with the new regulations, the CFIA continues to publish new and updated guidance documents on a regular basis.
Use the CFIA's Guidance Finder to find information about SFCR requirements by document type, activity type, food commodity, and method of production.
The following documents were recently posted:
New
On the My CFIA landing page:
On the Licensing landing page:
- Safe Food for Canadians Licence Registry
- Tips to help you avoid delays in the licence application process
On the Food imports landing page:
- Industry import notice on changes to harmonized system (HS) codes
On the Recognition of foreign systems landing page:
On the Meat products and food animals landing page:
- Guidance on meat slaughter
- Controls on contamination
- Dressing procedures and preparation of edible parts
- Exemption to the application of the inspection legend before refrigeration
- Guidance on specified risk material (SRM)
- Modernized Slaughter Inspection Program (MSIP) Hog
- Post-mortem evaluation procedures
- Poultry Off-line and On-line Reprocessing and Reconditioning Procedures
- Protocol for piloting new technology and procedures for poultry slaughter
- Guidance on animal welfare
- Guidelines for stunning techniques of mammalian food animals
- Evidence showing an animal welfare preventive measure is effective
- Guidelines for animal welfare preventive control plans and self-audits for the slaughter of food animals
- Guidelines for the humane care and handling of food animals at slaughter
- Guidelines for ritual slaughter of food animals without pre-slaughter stunning
- Guidelines for stunning techniques for avian food animals, including ratites
- Objective performance criteria for humane slaughter – red meat species and poultry
On the Food-specific import requirements landing page:
- Overview – Importing meat products
- Procedures for the importation (return) of exported meat products
- Application / authorization form for returning legally exported edible Canadian meat products to Canada from countries other than United States
- Foreign government official's declaration for exported Canadian meat products being returned to Canada
On the Preventive controls for food – Dairy products landing page:
- A series of documents related to good manufacturing practices and dairy processing systems.
On the Food exports landing page:
Updated
- Guidance for inspectors
- Organic Products has been updated to include a series of guidance documents explaining the requirements for producers of organic products.
- The Industry Labelling Tool has been updated to reflect SFCR requirements.
- The Export requirements library has updated information on Meat and poultry requirements.
- The Certificate of free sale landing page has updated information on the phasing out of the manufacturer's declaration form as well as the application for a certificate of free sale.
- The Timetable: Fresh fruit or vegetables now indicates that the coming into force date for the traceability requirement that a lot code is applied, attached or accompanies consumer prepackaged fresh fruits or vegetables is extended to January 15, 2020. This aligns with the coming into force date for persons who grow or harvest fresh fruits or vegetables.
- The SFCR timelines landing page has updated information in the interactive tools and the timetables on topics such as storage, intraprovincial trade and primary production.
Visit the CFIA website to learn more.