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Canadians enjoy a safe and abundant food supply. To help ensure this, veterinary drugs and pesticides used in food-producing animals undergo rigorous pre-market assessments by Health Canada.
Farmers work with veterinarians to establish herd or flock health programs to ensure the proper use of these medicines and to ensure no medications are still in an animal’s system at the time of marketing. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) also inspects animals for good health and monitors meat, dairy and egg products for residues of veterinary drugs and pesticides to ensure safe food.
A Maximum Residue Limit or MRL has been established for all veterinary drugs, based on a precautionary approach. MRLs are legal thresholds defining the maximum allowable level of residue in a food animal product. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) randomly tests samples of meat, milk and eggs to ensure that food from treated animals does not contain any residues exceeding the MRL.
An MRL is often thousands of times lower than the level at which a medicine would have an impact on human health. CFIA does not allow a product with a residue above the established MRL to enter the food chain. If residues below the MRL are found, there is no harm in consuming the product, as this level of residue is considered to pose no adverse health effects if ingested daily by humans over a lifetime.
A withdrawal period is the amount of time necessary after administration of a drug to an animal during which the treated animal should not be used for food production. This period allows the animal’s body to metabolize and eliminate the medication from their system, thereby removing the risk of residue.
