On-farm food safety program achieves national recognition

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Chicken Farmers of Canada is the first national commodity organization out of the gate to receive major government recognition for its on-farm food safety program.

At its annual meeting Tuesday, the group received the first ever letter of recognition under the On-Farm Food Safety Recognition program. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz awarded it.

The program promotes safe, high quality food production at the farm level and “encourages national industry organizations to develop food safety systems in line with Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points principles as defined by the Codex Alimentarius,” it says in a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) press release.

The Codex Alimentarius is the United Nations’ food standards setting body.

Marty Brett, Chicken Farmers senior communications officer, says the on-farm food safety program was developed nationally, implemented by each province and has third-party inspection.

Chicken Farmers has been developing its food safety program since 1997 and has reached various milestones over the years, including technical recognition in 2002, while the manual was recognized in 2006.

This latest recognition process was led by the CFIA while the letter of recognition is from the federal, provincial and territorial governments, he says. “It says that we’re doing everything properly. It’s basically a sign-off that our procedures are good, our manual is good, the third-party audit is clean and our program is tip-top and awesome.”  BF