After several years of meetings and discussions of the United States and Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and the Department of Health of Canada (Health Canada) have signed a Food Safety Systems Recognition Arrangement.
The arrangement is designed to safeguard public health related to the safety of the food traded between the two countries and constructs routes for collaboration and technical information exchange, audits and reviews, and discussion of policy. The arrangement is additionally a formal recognition from the FDA that a foreign food safety system is comparable to that of the United States.
This arrangement is the second for the FDA, with the first being arranged with New Zealand in 2012. FDA has reported that similar system recognition processes are being developed with Australia and the European Commission. Though the systems recognition is not mandatory or required for importing or exporting foods, it is intended to improve trade between the United States and Canada.
The arrangement is expected to aid in inspection and admissibility of food products, and encourage regulatory cooperation when food safety concerns arise, such as foodborne-illness outbreaks. An additional key component of the arrangement is the agreement of the two countries to consult and collaborate on food safety policy and regulatory approaches moving forward, which is expected to increase the exchange of best practices in food safety and encourage the development of similar or complementary policies and regulation.
The FDA, CFIA, and Health Canada each conducted systems recognition assessments using the International Comparability Assessment Tool (ICAT) in advance of the arrangement. ICAT allowed each country to review the others’ laws and regulations, inspection programs, foodborne-illness responses, compliance and enforcement, and laboratory frameworks for food safety. Such key elements are then compared where applicable and evaluated for equivalency.
All food products regulated by the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (including meat and poultry, and processed egg products) are excluded from the scope of the arrangement as they fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A press release on the arrangement is available here, and the complete text of the arrangement is available here.
