The Small Scale Food Processor Association (SSFPA) wants Fair and Equitable Treatment – Imported Food Products Must Be Subject To The Same Rigorous Inspection As Local Food Products
Jul 07, 2010
(News Release) VICTORIA – The members of the Small Scale Food Processor Association are angered by the recent actions of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency CFIA at the Home Grow-in Grocer located in Vancouver, BC. as reported in The Province Newspaper on July 1, 2010.
Candice Appleby, Executive Director of the SSFPA, states: “Our Canadian food processing companies, regardless of size, want a level playing field when it comes to enforcement of regulations. Any time the CFIA enters a retail food store they can usually find a number of non-compliant imported processed food products because imported processed food products are not being adequately inspected. Finding labelling errors made by small local processors shows the need for government assistance to small companies to comply with the regulatory complexities of the processed food business. While we respect the CFIA’s role as a guardian of the public, their policy of only investigating labelling infractions when someone contacts them and issues a complaint, provides a fertile ground for business competitors to abuse the system to gain greater market share. This raises the question: Who was concerned about Home Grow-In Grocer? Citizens who are concerned about food labelling need to educate themselves on the labelling requirements and then look at the approximate 80% of the processed food on the shelves that is imported and make their concerns known to the CFIA. Common infractions found are: Absent English or French, missing nutritional labels or nutritional labels that do not comply with Health Canada nutritional labelling regulations, non-compliant container size.”
The majority of processed food products sold in Canada are imported and subject to less inspection than domestic processed food products. The Canadian policy for ensuring processed food products coming into the country are in compliance with Canadian Statutes and Regulations is based on the assessment of risk attributed to the country of origin of the processed food product. The importer only needs to provide an Import Declaration Form and pay a $14.00 fee for each shipment; this could mean a fee of $14.00 for a semi-trailer load of a variety of processed food products. For a government looking for substantially higher cost recovery for services provided to the domestic companies, inspection of imported processed food products appears to be subsidized by the Canadian tax payer.
Importers of processed food are currently not licensed by the CFIA and consequently the CFIA has no way of knowing exactly what processed food products are coming into the country.
The SSFPA urges the Federal Government to license food importers, and provide the resources necessary to inspect food shipments coming into Canada instead of spending a disproportionate amount of effort on surveillance of the domestic food supply.
SSPFA was incorporated in 2002 to represent the interests of small scale food and beverage producers, help create regional food sustainability and advocate for the small scale food processor. SSFPA maintains the BC Specialty Food Directory, a list of 174 companies and 868 products available in BC. Many of the companies listed fall into the micro category with less than five full time staff. The directory is designed to be a resource for chefs, restaurants and specialty food retailers looking to source BC specialty products. For more information see www.ssfpa.net.