Video: Food Safety Recognition Program – A Collaborative Effort
An overview of the Food Safety Recognition Program (FSRP) – a voluntary program that provides federal recognition for on-farm and post-farm food safety systems. – Transcript/Captions
Food safety is a top priority, and a shared responsibility between governments, industry, and consumers.
The Food Safety Recognition Program and its partners provide government recognition of on-farm and post-farm food safety systems – systems that are developed and implemented by national industry organizations.
FSRP is a collaborative effort funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
The Program is led by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Through programs like FSRP, the Government of Canada works closely with industry partners to enhance food safety for Canadians – from farm to fork.
There are currently three organizations who have received full government food-safety recognition:
Chicken Farmers of Canada, Dairy Farmers of Canada and CanadaGAP.
Chicken Farmers of Canada were looking for a recognition program for on-farm food safety. Chicken farmers had been implementing an on-farm food safety program and it had come to the point where we needed a third-party, independent assessment of both the standard and the implementation so that we'd be able to communicate about the high standards of care on chicken farms across the country, and the Food Safety Recognition Program is really the perfect fit to do that.
In 2013, Chicken Farmers of Canada was the first commodity to receive full recognition. This was a culmination of a lot of hard work from our farmers and our organization. It was certainly a source of pride at the time and continues to be a source of pride for our farmers.
CanadaGAP is a food safety program for companies that produce, handle and broker fruits and vegetables.
CanadaGAP decided to pursue recognition under the government Food Safety Recognition Program because we felt it was important to align our objectives within industry with government's objectives for food safety. So having that cooperative partnership in developing the standard and in ensuring the rigour and the robustness of the certification program was important to us.
FSRP enrolment helps you demonstrate to your buyers that you adhere to accepted food safety practices – practices that conform to federal, provincial and territorial legislation, policy and protocols.
So for other national organizations that may be contemplating recognition under the Food Safety Recognition Program, I would encourage them to get on that track. There's a lot of value in the technical review process in terms of validating the rigour and the validity of the technical requirements of the standard.
The benefit that commodity associations can receive from this is that our experience has shown that the Food Safety Recognition Program is well-respected within the restaurant and retail community – and will be able to answer the questions that they have about how our food is produced.
We were very much supported in the process. The CFIA brings an excellent team of representatives to the Food Safety Recognition Program. These people are knowledgeable, helpful, they're flexible in accommodating timelines. They understand the goals of the program, and they also recognize the value of collaborating and partnering with industry as well as their provincial and territorial counterparts.
So at first glance the Food Safety Recognition Program may seem intimidating because it's a very thorough program. But in our experience, the recognition program staff have been very helpful throughout the entire process and the benefits have been very important for our program moving forward.
If food safety is important to you, your operation, or your organization, find out more about how participating in the Food Safety Recognition Program can help you.
Learn more about the Food Safety Recognition Program:
Visit inspection.gc.ca
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