U.S. & Canada have comparable food safety systems: CFIA and FDA

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have signed an arrangement recognizing that each of their food safety systems provides a similar level of protection.

The arrangement was signed at a recent meeting of the FDA-CFIA Health Canada Joint Committee on Food Safety.

According to a statement on the FDA website, by recognizing each other’s systems in this way, the FDA, CFIA, and Health Canada are expressing that they have confidence that they can leverage each other’s science-based regulatory systems.

“Systems Recognition establishes a framework for regulatory cooperation in a variety of areas that range from scientific collaboration to outbreak response. This arrangement is based on reciprocal food safety systems assessments. The arrangement offers benefits to each country and will consider the oversight of the partner country when prioritizing inspectional activities,” explains Michael Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the FDA, in a statement.

“Additionally, this arrangement is part of the US-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council in which the countries intend to better align their food safety regulatory systems, reduce unnecessary duplication, enhance information sharing, and to the extent possible, leverage resources so that the agencies can better meet their public health objectives,” adds Taylor.