New SFCR requirements for fresh fruits or vegetables come into effect

Starting today, new requirements of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) come into force for most businesses in the fresh fruits or vegetables (FFV) sector that import, export or engage in interprovincial trade.

The SFCR makes Canada’s food system even safer by focussing on prevention and allowing for faster removal of unsafe food from the marketplace.

Under the new provisions for FFV, most businesses are required to maintain:

• Preventive controls that address food safety hazards such as microbiological contamination to food and that help to prevent contaminated and non-compliant food from entering the marketplace;
• Written preventive control plans that document the risks to food and how these risks are being controlled; and,
• Traceability documentation that tracks the movement of food one step forward and one step back in the supply chain.
• New requirements for lot code labelling of consumer-prepackaged fresh fruits or vegetables that are not packaged at the retail level are also now in force. However, businesses will have until Jan. 15, 2021 to use up existing packaging.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency website provides SFCR resources tailored specifically for FFV businesses, including a fact sheet, information on traceability-specific labelling requirements and a recorded presentation about the regulations coming into effect today.