CFIA can now issue monetary penalties for meat safety non-compliance

July 16, 2014 –  The Government of Canada announced that it is further strengthening Canada’s food safety system by allowing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to issue monetary penalties to businesses that do not meet Canada’s meat safety requirements. The new regulatory amendment expands Administrative Monetary Penalities (AMPs) to the Meat Inspection Act and the Meat Inspection Regulations, 1990.

This regulatory amendment will allow CFIA inspectors to issue an AMP for non-compliance with 84 provisions of the Meat Inspection Act (MIA) and the Meat Inspection Regulations (MIR). These provisons include items related to: food safety (control programs such as HACCP) and non-food safety (labelling and consumer protection).

AMPs do not replace existing inspection and enforcement tools, but instead offer the Agency an additional tool in managing non-compliance situations.

The expansion of the AMPs to include the MIA and MIR supports other activities being undertaken by the CFIA, such as those outlined in the Healthy and Safe Food for Canadians Framework. This framework illustrates how our Government is working to prevent food safety risks and protect Canadians when unsafe products enter the marketplace.

The regulations come into force immediately. The CFIA will be working with the Canadian meat industry to help gradually transition to the new regulations. The amendments to the Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC) AMPs Regulations were published in Canada Gazette, Part II on July 16, 2014.