Regulating Agricultural Biotechnology

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) shares responsibility with Health Canada for regulating products derived from biotechnology. The Agency is responsible for assessing the safety of plants, animal feeds and animal feed ingredients, fertilizers and veterinary biologics.

Health Canada is responsible for assessing the human health safety of products derived through biotechnology including foods, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices and pest control products.

CFIA is responsible for the development of non-health and safety food labelling regulations and policies.

CFIA regulatory responsibilities include:

• Animal Biotechnology
• Labelling of novel foods derived from genetic engineering
• Novel feeds
• Novel fertilizer supplements
• Plants with novel traits
• Veterinary biologics produced by biotechnology

The Office of Biotechnology is a focal point for coordination between programs on policy matters concerning the regulation of agricultural products of biotechnology. Responsibilities also include working with CFIA program experts to provide input and develop positions for interdepartmental, national and international biotechnology initiatives.

• International cooperation
• Resource centre
• Transparency

Additional government and international information can be found at:

• BioPortal - Government of Canada's biotechnology resource
• Environment Canada - New Substances Program
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Science
• Health Canada - Biotechnology
• Natural Resources Canada (Canadian Forest Service) - Biotechnology
• United States Department of Agriculture - Biotechnology and Scientific Services
• World Health Organization - 20 Questions on Genetically Modified Foods