Ensuring the Safety of Canada’s Food Supply

Canada has a worldwide reputation for producing safe, high quality food. In fact, with our stringent regulations, Canada’s food supply ranks among the safest in the world.

Everyone involved in the agri-food system works hard to produce an exceptionally safe and wholesome supply of food. Producers, veterinarians, feed manufacturers, animal health companies, government and consumers all have a role to play. In the animal health industry, our goal is to ensure that animal-sourced foods are safe – by prudently using pharmaceuticals and ensuring food will be free from harmful residues.

Producers

Farmers that produce meat, milk, eggs, honey or fish take their responsibility to produce safe food very seriously. Today’s livestock producers are highly educated and use the latest technology – products and equipment – to feed, care for, monitor and keep records on the animals under their stewardship.

Farmers use medications to help keep their animals healthy. When an animal is ill, it may be necessary to give antibiotics or other animal health products to help the animal recover, in the same way that humans take antibiotics when they have a bacterial infection. Disease prevention is also an important facet of animal health care programs. Medications have proven to be effective in preventing harmful diseases which, in turn, help to improve the animal’s productivity.

Producers are aware that they have a major responsibility to ensure that animal health products must be out of an animal’s system, according to the product’s label instructions, before the animal or products from the animal are sent to market.

To ensure that food marketed is safe for human consumption, producers must:

Virtually all Canadian livestock and poultry producers belong to professional industry associations that have taken the initiative to develop and implement extensive Quality Assurance Programs and On-Farm Food Safety Programs. These programs are specifically designed to provide guidelines for producers to follow to ensure that the food they produce is safe and of the highest quality.

As an example, the Quality Starts Here® program established by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association recommends procedures at both the production and processing stages to ensure a safe, healthy product. In order to achieve its objectives, this program’s Management Committee designs and conducts ongoing research projects to identify carcass quality and safety issues. To date, the results from Quality Starts Here® research projects have far exceeded expectations set for the program. One of the specific areas that the Quality Starts Here® program has addressed is the proper injection of animal health products to ensure that the quality and safety of the final meat product is not compromised.

Canadian pork, dairy, egg, chicken, turkey, veal and aquaculture producer associations have all established Quality Assurance programs. (For more information, see Quality Assurance Backgrounder.

Veterinarians

Veterinarians have an indispensable role to play in food safety by working with the producer to keep animals healthy. There is tremendous value in the vet-client-patient relationship since it allows a veterinarian to get to know a farmer, his farm operation as well as the animals themselves. This is much the same as how a doctor gets to know a human patient and his/her medical history.

By working closely with their veterinarians, farmers can ensure the health and safety of their animals and the appropriate use of animal health products. For example, livestock producers work in concert with their veterinarians to reduce the need for antibiotics through biosecurity preventative health programs. This involves restricted access into barns to avoid the introduction of harmful diseases.

Ongoing dialogue between the producer and the veterinarian is a key component of animal health management programs. Regular health management visits to clients’ farms provide continual opportunities for veterinarians to advise on herd health and proper use of medication.

Although all pharmaceutical products are labeled, veterinarians often leave additional written instructions on the farm and verbally review important label information with producers, including withdrawal times for prescribed products.

Feed Manufacturers

There are over 500 commercial feed manufacturing establishments in Canada, ranging from small mills to large, sophisticated operations. The production and sale of livestock and poultry is regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and only ingredients that have been approved by the government may be used as ingredients in livestock and poultry feed.

Some animal feeds have medications added to them to help prevent/treat disease and to promote growth. Including medications in feed is an efficient and painless way to medicate animals.

Feed manufacturers provide both medicated and non-medicated feeds, depending on the producer’s requirements. Only approved medications at specified levels can be added to feed, or at levels that have been prescribed by a veterinarian. Feed manufacturers play an important role in the food safety chain by ensuring that the right medications at the correct levels are weighed, that these medications are homogeneously mixed into feed, that all forms of cross contamination are prevented, and that the final product is labeled with proper directions for use including withdrawal times as required. Their representatives have comprehensive product knowledge and are a valuable source of information to producers.

The feed industry is, through the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada’s national Feed Safety Program, implementing good manufacturing practices (GMPs) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) programs. GMPs and HACCP are food safety focused, and encompass all elements of the manufacturing process from the incoming ingredients right through to the arrival of the final product at the farm. Several feed mills have already received HACCP certification, with the bulk of the industry actively working towards this goal.

Animal Health Companies

Since animal health products are used when necessary to treat and prevent disease, the Canadian Animal Health Institute and its members also have a role to play in food safety.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers invest heavily in research to develop new products. Every animal care product must undergo extensive testing before being introduced to the marketplace. With years of trials combined with strict government requirements, it takes pharmaceutical companies an average of 10-12 years to bring a new product from discovery to the marketplace in Canada. The cost of introducing a new product for food animals can reach up to $250 million.

Research conducted by an animal health company includes extensive testing to ensure human and animal safety. When they submit a proposal to have a new drug approved for use in Canada, sponsors must provide the Veterinary Drugs Directorate with detailed information on efficacy (to prove that the drug works as it is intended), toxicity and residues. The manufacturers collect this information by conducting numerous studies over many years in the product development phase.

Animal health companies also have qualified veterinarians on-staff. These veterinarians provide vital input in product development. They also act as a highly knowledgeable resource for local veterinarians and producers when products are approved for use.

In pharmaceutical production, animal health companies must comply with a set of standards known worldwide as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) which outline the principles and practices that must be followed. Most sections of the Canadian GMPs are now harmonized with international GMP standards. They provide specific requirements for areas including facilities, equipment, sanitation, testing, manufacturing, personnel, quality control, packaging/labeling and record-keeping.

Government Agencies

Several federal government agencies have a role to play in food safety, including: the Veterinary Drugs Directorate and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, both part of Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency; part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Each year, government authorities test approximately 300,000 food samples to make sure that Canada’s food supply is safe and does not contain harmful residues. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency works hard to ensure compliance with maximum residue limits that have been established by Health Canada for animal health products used during food production. Health Canada’s tolerance levels for chemical and biological residues are among the strictest in the world. In Canada, residue limits are based on an estimated maximum daily consumption over a lifetime. Historically, residue level compliance has averaged 99.7 percent (over a 7-year period from 1992 to 1999). Any food that is found to contain residues above the tolerances is destroyed.

State-of-the-art testing methods have been developed to measure residues, food additives and environmental contaminants. These tests are capable of detecting concentrations well below the threshold of any health concern. Working with food safety experts, our federal regulators have therefore established maximum residue limits that provide a 100 to 1,000-fold margin of safety.

The Veterinary Drugs Directorate, Health Canada is responsible for the review and approval of new pharmaceutical products for use in Canadian animals. A new drug for animal use is approved for sale in Canada only if Health Canada is satisfied that:

Any new drug approved for sale in Canada must fully satisfy the required scientific requirements under the Food and Drugs Act.

For any new drug, the regulations require that the manufacturer:

The Directorate will also ask manufacturers to submit additional information if this is required.

FOOD SAFETY TIPS

Consumers also have a role to play in food safety. Following are some food handling tips. Additional information can be found on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website at www.inspection.gc.ca

QUALITY ASSURANCE BACKGROUNDER

Quality Assurance Programs Protect Our Safety

Industry associations provide farmers with safety guidelines to protect the quality of the food they produce. These Quality Assurance Programs cover everything from research programs to educational and communications programs. Here are some of the programs now in place in Canada to ensure our food safety:

Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance – www.aquaculture.ca
The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) is a national industry association that represents the interests of Canadian aquaculture operators, feed companies and suppliers, as well as provincial finfish and shellfish aquaculture associations. As one mechanism to ensure the safety and quality of farmed salmon in Canada, the aquaculture industry, through the efforts of the Salmon Health Consortium, has developed a HACCP-based certification program for farmed salmon and trout producers – the Healthy Salmon Program. This standards-based program has been designed to ensure that therapeutant use on fish farms is compatible and compliant with seafood regulatory requirements.

Canadian Cattlemen’s Association – www.cattle.ca
Quality Starts Here®: utilizing the results from research initiatives, education programs and materials such as Good Production Practices manuals and a CD-ROM infobase have been developed for feedlots and cow-calf producers. A verifiable, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)-based on-farm food safety program is in development with implementation scheduled for 2001.

Canadian Egg Marketing Agency – www.canadaegg.ca
The HACCP-based Start Clean – Stay Clean program, in place at the farm level in Canada, is considered a global model and complies with internationally recognized safety standards. HACCP principles ensure that potential hazards in production are analyzed and critical control points for reducing or eliminating hazards are identified. Federal and provincial officers conduct inspections on the farm to advise on the Start Clean – Stay Clean safety guidelines.

Canadian Pork Council – www.cpc-ccp.com
Canadian Quality Assurance™ (CQA): this practical on-farm program addresses food safety issues. The principles are based on producer education and awareness as producers develop a set of documented standards known as "Good Production Practices". Farmers measure their own standards compared to the Good Production Practices outlined in the reference manual as they complete the CQA "On-Farm Quality Assessment Form".

Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency – www.canadianturkey.ca
As part of its ongoing commitment to food safety and improving the quality of turkeys produced in Canada, the CTMA in 1993 published its Best Management Practices for Turkey Production to inform turkey growers of the optimum measures to control salmonella and other pathogens on-farm. The CTMA is currently developing a much more comprehensive Bio-Security and Quality Assurance Program, based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) principles, for on-farm application in the domestic turkey industry.

Chicken Farmers of Canada – http://www.chicken.ca/defaultsite/index_e.aspx?ArticleID=777
Safe, Safer, Safest is a comprehensive on-farm food safety program. The program rests on CFC’s Good Production Practices Code, and recommends the most modern methods and techniques to achieve optimum health, cleanliness and safety at every stage. The program includes a manual and a set of record-keeping forms that help farmers keep track of key areas, such as feed, on their farms.

Dairy Farmers of Canada – http://www.dairygoodness.ca/aboutustradeen.aspx
DFC's membership includes provincial milk marketing boards, dairy producers' associations, cooperatives, milk recording and breed-related organizations. DFC represents 21,500 dairy producers across Canada. Extensive research, communications and educational programs are all part of DFC’s commitment to the safety of Canada’s dairy industry.