This document summarizes Canadian regulations regarding sanitary and phytosanitary standards and food labelling requirements for imports. It discusses that Canada's regulations are based on international standards from Codex Alimentarius, OIE, and IPPC. The regulations establish general food safety standards, and require licenses for food importers and processors. They also mandate specific labelling of ingredients, allergens, nutrition information, and production codes/dates. Novel foods from genetically modified plants and microorganisms require additional assessment.
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Accessibility Information and Tips Title Genetically Modi.docxdaniahendric
Accessibility Information and Tips
Title:
Genetically Modified Foods: Overview.
Authors:
Rich, Alex K.
Warhol, Tom
Source:
Points of View: Genetically Modified Foods. 6/1/2018, p1-1. 1p.
Document Type:
Article
Subjects:
GENETICALLY modified foods
FOOD biotechnology
PLANT genetic engineering
ORGANIC farmers
Geographic Terms:
UNITED StatesReport Available
Abstract:
The article presents an overview of issues related to genetically modified foods in the U.S.
Some of the improvements made possible by genetic engineering of food crops such as
herbicide-resistant soybeans and insecticidal corn are cited. It traces the history of GM food and
its regulation by the U.S. government. The problems posed by GM contamination for organic
farmers are discussed.
Lexile:
1420
ISBN:
9781429815529
Accession Number:
23253318
Genetically Modified Foods: Overview
Full Text
Related Items
Point: The Next Agricultural Revolution.
Counterpoint: The Pandora's Box of Genetically Modified Foods.
Genetically Modified Foods: Guide to Critical Analysis.
Genetically Modified Foods.
Genetically Modified Rice
Demonstrators in Ottawa calling for the government to make it mandatory to labell genetically
modified foods
Genetically Altered Foods: Hazards or Harmless?
Choose a Topic.
Evaluate a Website.
Write a Topic Sentence.
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CURRICULUM STANDARDS--U.S.
Introduction
Genetically modified food (also GM food, bioengineered food, genetically modified organisms,
GMOs) is food in which, at some point during the production process, molecules and proteins
are chemically altered to give the food more nutrients, a better appearance, or a longer shelf
life. Genetically modified grain is often fed to livestock used for meat and dairy products. Much
of the produce sold in the United States is grown from genetically modified seeds.
Farming has relied on selective growth and selective breeding for thousands of years; farmers
gather and sow seeds from plants that display desirable characteristics, such as resistance to
certain fungi or bacteria. Over a period of several years, a farmer could create an ideal strain of
a particular plant through a sort of artificial natural selection, forcing the plant to evolve in the
most beneficial way to the farmer. Similarly, if certain cows produce leaner meat than others,
those cows can be bred together to reliably produce lean beef.
With advances in humanity's understanding of DNA and genetics, it has become possible to
speed up this process by inserting and removing specific genes from plants and animals. Once
a gene carrying a specific favorable characteristic is identified, it can theoretically be inserted
into any other organism to elicit that characteristic. Thus, genetic engineering has produced
herbicide-resistant soybeans and insecticidal corn. The general consensus is that there is no ...
Accessibility Information and Tips Title Genetically Modi.docxronak56
Accessibility Information and Tips
Title:
Genetically Modified Foods: Overview.
Authors:
Rich, Alex K.
Warhol, Tom
Source:
Points of View: Genetically Modified Foods. 6/1/2018, p1-1. 1p.
Document Type:
Article
Subjects:
GENETICALLY modified foods
FOOD biotechnology
PLANT genetic engineering
ORGANIC farmers
Geographic Terms:
UNITED StatesReport Available
Abstract:
The article presents an overview of issues related to genetically modified foods in the U.S.
Some of the improvements made possible by genetic engineering of food crops such as
herbicide-resistant soybeans and insecticidal corn are cited. It traces the history of GM food and
its regulation by the U.S. government. The problems posed by GM contamination for organic
farmers are discussed.
Lexile:
1420
ISBN:
9781429815529
Accession Number:
23253318
Genetically Modified Foods: Overview
Full Text
Related Items
Point: The Next Agricultural Revolution.
Counterpoint: The Pandora's Box of Genetically Modified Foods.
Genetically Modified Foods: Guide to Critical Analysis.
Genetically Modified Foods.
Genetically Modified Rice
Demonstrators in Ottawa calling for the government to make it mandatory to labell genetically
modified foods
Genetically Altered Foods: Hazards or Harmless?
Choose a Topic.
Evaluate a Website.
Write a Topic Sentence.
How To Understand the Bias of a Publication
CURRICULUM STANDARDS--U.S.
Introduction
Genetically modified food (also GM food, bioengineered food, genetically modified organisms,
GMOs) is food in which, at some point during the production process, molecules and proteins
are chemically altered to give the food more nutrients, a better appearance, or a longer shelf
life. Genetically modified grain is often fed to livestock used for meat and dairy products. Much
of the produce sold in the United States is grown from genetically modified seeds.
Farming has relied on selective growth and selective breeding for thousands of years; farmers
gather and sow seeds from plants that display desirable characteristics, such as resistance to
certain fungi or bacteria. Over a period of several years, a farmer could create an ideal strain of
a particular plant through a sort of artificial natural selection, forcing the plant to evolve in the
most beneficial way to the farmer. Similarly, if certain cows produce leaner meat than others,
those cows can be bred together to reliably produce lean beef.
With advances in humanity's understanding of DNA and genetics, it has become possible to
speed up this process by inserting and removing specific genes from plants and animals. Once
a gene carrying a specific favorable characteristic is identified, it can theoretically be inserted
into any other organism to elicit that characteristic. Thus, genetic engineering has produced
herbicide-resistant soybeans and insecticidal corn. The general consensus is that there is no .
1. 1
ADVANCED EXPORTING STRATEGIES AND ISSUES
REGULATORY AND TECHNICAL COMPLIANCE
SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY STANDARDS AND LABELLING
REQUIREMENTS
Enhancing Opportunities in the Canadian Market for
Innovative High-Value Colombian Agricultural Products
January 15-17, 2013
Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Cali, Colombia
Craig M. Johnston
Berkeley Counsel
Berkeley Corporate Advisors
Toronto, Canada
Tel +1 416 364 7772
Email craig @berkeleycounsel.com
Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors
2. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 2
Introduction
• Purpose of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
• General Standards
• Standards for Standards
• Regulatory Framework
• Novel Foods and Plants
• Labelling
• Nutrition
• Claims
3. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 3
Purposes of Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures
a. to protect animal or plant life or health from risks arising
from the entry, establishment or spread of pests,
diseases, disease-carrying organisms or disease-
causing organisms;
b. to protect human or animal life or health from risks
arising from additives, contaminants, toxins or disease-
causing organisms in foods, beverages or feedstuffs;
c. to protect human life or health from risks arising from
diseases carried by animals, plants or products thereof,
or from the entry, establishment or spread of pests; or
d. to prevent or limit other damage from the entry,
establishment or spread of pests.
4. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 4
General Standard for Food In Canada
Food and Drugs Act prohibits the sale of an article of food
that:
(a) has in or upon it any poisonous or harmful substance;
(b) is unfit for human consumption;
(c) consists in whole or in part of any filthy, putrid,
disgusting, rotten, decomposed or diseased animal or
vegetable substance;
(d) is adulterated; or
(e) was manufactured, prepared, preserved, packaged, or
stored under unsanitary conditions.
5. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 5
Plant Pest Protection
Plant Protection Act prohibits the import into Canada or
export from Canada of any thing that is a pest (i.e. means
any thing that is injurious or potentially injurious,
whether directly or indirectly, to plants or to products
or by-products of plants, and includes any plant
prescribed as a pest), that is or could be infested with a
pest or that constitutes or could constitute a biological
obstacle to the control of a pest, unless otherwise
permitted.
6. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 6
Standards for Standards
• SPS Agreement and the Canada-Colombia FTA
• Measures based on:
• International standards, guidelines and recommendations;
• Scientifically-based risk assessment and scientifically defensible
risk control measures
• Codex Alimentarius (FAO/WHO)
• World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
• International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC)
7. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 7
Proposed Enforcement Framework
• Licence all importers, exporters of food and
manufacturers or processors of food products;
• Assess importer based, in part, on review of its verification
that supplier’s processes and procedures, and, in
particular, the key controls used to ensure the safety,
labelling and composition of food during manufacturing,
processing, storage or distribution of the product are
proper;
• Reflects Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)
principles;
• Recommended International Code of Practice – General
Principles of Food Hygiene adopted by the Codex
Alimentarius
9. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 9
Novel Foods
a. a substance, including a microorganism, that does not have a
history of safe use as a food;
b. a food that has been manufactured, prepared, preserved, or
packaged by a process that
i. has not been previously applied to that food, and
ii. caused the food to undergo a major change; and
c. a food that is derived from a plant, animal or microorganism
that has been genetically modified such that
i. the plant, animal or microorganism exhibits characteristics that were
not previously observed in that plant, animal or microorganism,
ii. the plant, animal or microorganism no longer exhibits characteristics
that were previously observed in that plant, animal or microorganism,
iii. one or more characteristics of the plant, animal or microorganism no
longer fall within the anticipated range for that plant, animal or
microorganism
10. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 10
Plants with Novel Traits
• a plant that contains a trait which is both new to the
Canadian environment and has the potential to affect the
specific use and safety of the plant with respect to the
environment and human health;
• traits can be introduced using biotechnology,
mutagenesis, or conventional breeding techniques;
• includes all viable plant parts derived from them
11. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 11
Novel Foods Assessment
• evaluation of the process used to develop the food
product;
• comparison of its characteristics to those of traditional
food counterparts; its nutritional quality;
• the potential for new toxicants or anti-nutrients; and
• the potential allergenicity of any proteins that have been
introduced into the food by genetic modification
techniques.
12. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 12
Assessment of PNTs
• Phytosanitary risk assessment
• Excludes transgenic cut flowers specifically of the taxa:
• Chrysanthemum x morifolium,
• Dianthus caryophyllus,
• Dendranthema spp.,
• Gerbera hybrida,
• Lilium spp.,
• Rosa spp., and
• Tulipa spp.
that are not intended for environmental release
13. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 13
Labelling
• required on pre-packaged goods, that is, goods in
packages that are sold to the consumer, except
• confections that are packaged in one-bite sizes and
• fresh fruits or vegetables packaged in a wrapper or confining band
of less than ½ inch
14. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 14
Food Labelling - Basic Required Elements
(a) the common name of the product;
(b) Country of origin;
(c) the net quantity;
(d) Name and address of the distributor;
(e) List of ingredients (including allergens);
(f) Nutrition facts table;
(g) Durable life date if the durable life is less than 90 days
(except, among other things, fresh fruit and vegetables)
(h) French/English;
(h) No misleading statements
15. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 15
Common Name
• The name prescribed by Federal regulations, e.g.,
"orange juice from concentrate", "60% whole wheat
bread", "milk chocolate", "mayonnaise", “mixed
vegetables” or “breakfast sausage”, where applicable; or
• When not prescribed by regulation, the name by which the
food is commonly known, e.g., orange drink, vanilla
cookies, chocolate cake.
16. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 16
Net Quantity
• quantity must be declared in metric units;
• label may also show the Imperial or American equivalents;
Ingredients List
• listed in descending order of proportion by weight;
• ingredients must be described using their common
names;
• some common names for ingredients are
mandated by regulation.
17. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 17
Allergens
enhanced labelling requirements for food allergens, gluten
sources and sulphites. Listed food allergens are:
a.almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts,
pecans, pine nuts, pistachios or walnuts;
b.peanuts;
c.sesame seeds;
d.wheat and triticale;
e.eggs;
f.milk;
g.soybeans;
h.crustaceans (common name of the crustaceans);
i.shellfish (common name of the shellfish);
j.fish (common name of the fish); or
k.mustard seeds.
18. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 18
Nutrition Facts Table
Required unless the product is
a. foods for which all the required nutritional information may be
expressed as "0"
b. Alcoholic beverages
c. fresh vegetables and fruits without added ingredients
d. most raw, single ingredient meat, meat by-product, poultry
meat, and poultry meat by-product;
e. raw, single ingredient marine or freshwater animal products
(such as fish, crustaceans, etc.)
21. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 21
Health/Quality Claims
• Modifications -- “No salt added”, “Light”
• The modification must be allowed within the definition of the
product
• Must be a variation for the “usual”
• Must specify why it is, e.g. “light” (e.g. “half the calories of our
regular salad dressing”)
• “Fresh”, “Natural, “Organic”
22. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 22
Production Codes
• herme%cally
sealed
containers
of
processed
fruits
and
vegetables;
• code
stamped
on
them
to
enable
the
iden%fica%on
of
the
establishment
where
they
were
processed
and
the
date
of
manufacture;
• assist
in
product
tracing
and
recalls
in
the
event
of
problems;
• strongly
recommended
that
all
products
and
shipping
containers
have
codes
on
them
to
enable
tracing
and
recall
as
well.
UPC Labels
UPC labels are not required by law, but practically all retailers will require
this on the label to facilitate inventory control
23. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 23
Conclusions
• Regulatory framework will look to policies and procedures
of importer (HACCP);
• Importer will look to you for assurances regarding proper
policies and procedures;
• Recommended International Code of Practice – General
Principles of Food Hygiene adopted by the Codex
Alimentarius
24. Craig M. Johnston - Berkeley Corporate Advisors 24
… Conclusions
• Develop relationships in light of this footprint:
• Customs brokerages;
• Distributors;
• Clients.
• Recognize the need to support those relationship with
information and documented policies and procedures;
• Identify any short-comings or obstacles in the process and
develop strategies for addressing these.