Canada - CFIA Approval

NARDAP now includes the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) approval sub-program. In accordance with the Organic Products Regulations, the CFIA is the Canadian competent authority with respect to interprovincial and international trade of organic agricultural and food products in Canada.

The CFIA approval sub-program managed by the CAEQ is aiming at the acceptance of organic products certified in accordance with Canadian Organic Standards (COS) and imported to Canada or traded between Canadian provinces.

What need does this sub-program address?

To certify organic products originating in Canada and intended for sale in a province other than that in which they were produced, certification bodies must be approved by the CFIA.

For products intended for export to Canada, certification bodies must be approved by the CFIA if they do not operate in a country recognized by the Canadian authorities through an equivalence agreement.

The CFIA approval is granted to certification bodies that are the object of a recommendation made by an accreditation body – called “conformity verification body” – with which the CFIA has signed an agreement for the assessment and the monitoring of organizations that certify organic products in accordance with the Canadian standard, following the determination of their compliance with the Canadian Organic Regime (COR).

In 2008, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recognized the Committee on Accreditation for Evaluation of Quality (CAEQ) as operating a valid system for verifying the compliance of organic certifiers, in accordance with the international ISO Standard 17011 – General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies. This recognition has been published on the CFIA Web Site.

Which organizations can apply?

Any organizations certifying organic products in Canada or in a country with which the Canadian authorities have not signed an equivalency agreement may apply to the CAEQ to have their certification program assessed against its compliance with the requirements of Canada Organic Regime (OPR).

CAEQ Role

In order to be approved by the CFIA, certification bodies must demonstrate to a conformity verification body such as the CAEQ that they operate a certification system that is compliant with the requirements of Canada Organic Regime (OPR).

This demonstration results from an assessment that is carried out in the course of the processing of an initial accreditation application. If this assessment proves satisfactory, the Board will accredit the certification body and the CAEQ will make a recommendation to the CFIA that organization be approved and included on its list of authorized organizations.

If the body has been already accredited by the CARTV to certify organic products according to reference standards other than the National Standard of Canada on organic farming, it may request an accreditation extension to the OPR scope so that it can certify products according to this standard.

All applications for initial accreditation or an accreditation extension will be handled by the CAEQ.

What are the actions of CAEQ?

In order to enable the certification body to demonstrate compliance of its certification system with OPR requirements, the CAEQ offers formal accreditation with the scope of OPR. In the course of the accreditation process, the CAEQ reviews the quality manual applicable to the Canadian Organic Standard as well as its level of implementation. The certification body is provided with the assessment reports prepared by the CAEQ on the document review, as well as the regular on-the-spot evaluation, surveillance and multiannual re-assessment of its activities that are required to maintain accreditation.

With regards to standards, the CAEQ offers access to a database that include the main national standards and in addition a gap analysis between most of them. Consequently, if a certification body is already certifying products according to another organic standard and wishes to offer clients an organic certification program according to the Canadian standard, it will be able to instruct inspectors to verify any complementary or additional requirements in order to certify the products against OPR standards. It will then be deemed compliant.

How does CAEQ facilitate your task of requesting approval?

Since CAEQ specializes in accreditation services for organizations carrying out certification of agricultural and food products, the CAEQ uses only one accreditation reference manual for assessing certification bodies. This accreditation manual contains criteria that correspond to both ISO Guide 65 as well as IROCB (1) requirements.

Besides the accreditation, the CAEQ offers additional services such as Certified Products Database management, Standards comparisons for the purpose of equivalency determination, etc.

Contact without delay Vincent Vilela or Denis Paul Bouffard, who will describe the procedure to follow and will guide you in submitting your application for the COR accreditation scope.

(1) IROCB stands for International Requirements for Organic Certification Bodies