WASHINGTON, May 4, 2016 – Food and Drug Administration and Canadian food authorities will cooperate on a range of food safety issues after agreeing that their food safety systems are comparable.
FDA announced Wednesday that it had reached an arrangement with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Department of Health of Canada (Health Canada) to cooperate on food safety issues and communicate regularly.
It’s the second time FDA has recognized a foreign food safety system as comparable: The first was New Zealand in 2012, and “a similar system recognition process is underway between FDA and Australia and the European Commission,” FDA said.
The Food Safety Systems Recognition Arrangement “establishes a framework for regulatory cooperation in a variety of areas that range from scientific collaboration to outbreak response,” said Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine. “The arrangement offers benefits to each country and will consider the oversight of the partner country when prioritizing inspectional activities.”
The Food Safety Modernization Act gives FDA “a variety of new authorities to help ensure the safety of imported foods, and provides for taking into account the capability of the regulatory system of the exporting country to assure compliance with U.S. food safety standards for a given food,” FDA said in a background document on Systems Recognition.
The arrangement defines “food” as “any article used as food or drink for humans, chewing gum,” and anything used in such items. Excluded from the arrangement are meat, poultry, processed egg products, farmed catfish and catfish products, Grade “A” milk and Grade “A” milk products, raw bivalve molluscan shellfish, and dietary supplements and natural health products.
According to the arrangement, FDA and its Canadian counterparts will, “to the extent reasonably possible”:
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