Improved Food Inspection Model
Final Model
5. Imports

5.1 Preventive control plans

Food products entering Canada must meet all regulatory requirements for safety, nutrition, composition, labelling, packaging and quality, as applicable. Importers do not have direct control over food production and would therefore need to develop other strategies to address risks, including having records to demonstrate how these strategies work.

Importers would need to include elements of the preventive control plan that apply to their operation (see Annex B). For example, importers without facilities would not be expected to address physical structure and maintenance. However, all importers would, at a minimum, need to include the following elements in their preventive control plans:

• Element 1: Product and Process
• Element 7: Traceability, recall and complaints

Importers who are involved in further handling or repackaging of food would need to address all seven elements of the preventive control plans.

5.2 Inspection

The inspection approach outlined in section 4.2 would be used to verify the effectiveness of the importer's preventive control plan.

When notified of a non-compliant food commodity, the CFIA would take steps appropriate to the nature and severity of the issue to prevent further product from entering the marketplace until corrective action had been taken. An inspector, who has reasonable grounds to believe that an imported food commodity does not comply with the legislation, may order that it be removed from Canada or, if removal is impossible, that it be destroyed. If not removed or destroyed, the commodity would be forfeited and may be disposed of as the Minister directs. If, however, the commodity does not present a risk to human health, the regulated party may be given an opportunity to bring it into compliance. In the case of critical and serious non-compliance, the CFIA would notify known importers of the affected product through an import alert and the competent authority in the exporting country.

Depending on the nature and severity of non-compliance, the CFIA might review technical arrangements or other bilateral agreements to determine whether amendments would be required.

The CFIA would use foreign country comparability and audits as well as product surveillance as tools to determine the level of compliance for products entering Canada.

5.3 Foreign country comparability

Canada is a net importer of food. Conducting a foreign country system audit is a means of assessing risk and determining whether a country's inspection system is equivalent or comparable to Canadian standards.

Equivalence or comparability does not mean that the foreign country's system must be the same as Canada's food inspection system. Rather, it is based on the ability of an exporting country's system or sanitary measures to achieve the same outcome or provide for the same "appropriate level of protection" as Canada's system or sanitary measures.

Based on risk and available resources, the CFIA may choose to perform on-site foreign country system audits to review the food safety requirements that a foreign country imposes on its domestic manufacturers. The results of these audits would feed into the risk-based inspection oversight framework as part of the CFIA's risk intelligence gathering and analysis activities. The CFIA is developing its policy on comparability assessment of trading partners and will be carrying out consultations as appropriate.

5.4 Surveillance

Surveillance of imported food is a key activity when:

• food is prepared outside the country where requirements or competent authority oversight is not comparable; or
• on-site verification of the processing controls cannot be conducted by the CFIA.

The CFIA would use product surveillance as a tool to identify gaps and trends, to determine sector performance, or to provide baseline information such as the level of chemical contaminants in certain foods. Analysis of this type of information would provide a mechanism for continuous improvement including adjusting the risk-based inspection oversight framework, changing standards or requirements, and planning work.