Council introduces new fee for on-farm food safety audits

Thursday, April 19, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

The Canadian Horticultural Council will be charging a $50 per farm flat fee on all CanadaGAP audits starting in 2013 to help the national organization continue its advocacy work on behalf of growers.

Anne Fowlie, council executive vice-president, says the fee will be added in to the overall CanadaGAP (Good Agricultural Practices) registration fee. Delegates to the council’s annual meeting in March approved the fee.

There are two components to the cost of CanadaGAP certification. One part is the annual program enrolment fee participants pay to the council. The fee varies depending on which audit option a participant chooses. Audit costs participants pay directly to the certification body form the other part.

When the council started the on-farm food safety program many years ago, discussions at that time noted “at some point in time there would need to be something in terms of a return on investment (for council),” she says.

The council put in time and money to develop the CanadaGAP program and the money from the $50 per farm fee on all audits will be used to continue the overall work of the council “which will include in part continuing to monitor and look at food-safety related issues,” she explains.
 
CanadaGAP is the council’s on-farm food safety program. It consists of national food safety standards and a certification system for the safe production, storage and packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The council is a voluntary, non-profit organization. The amount of money the council raises from the fee will depend on the number of participants, Fowlie says. BF