While CanadaGAP, a food safety program benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative, is as rigorous and sound as similar food safety certification programs, the way the program was developed makes it a good choice for Canadian growers, noted Heather Gale, executive director of the CanadaGAP program.“CanadaGAP is a natural choice for the horticultural industry in Canada since it was developed in consultation with Canadian growers and has been reviewed for technical soundness by Canadian government officials,” said Gale. In addition to knowledge of the Canadian market, the prescriptive nature of the program standards lessens the opportunity for auditor misinterpretation, which Gale explained makes the process as efficient as possible. Those benefits are in addition to the benefits that all food safety certification programs offer.
“Like other internationally recognized food safety programs, CanadaGAP has been benchmarked by the GFSI,” noted Gale. “This puts CanadaGAP in the same category as other GFSI-benchmarked food safety programs such as PrimusGFS, GLOBALG.A.P. and S.Q.F.” When it comes to choosing which program to go with, growers must consider customer demands and requirements, and while Gale noted that a customer who accepts certification to any GFSI-recognized program would not distinguish between CanadaGAP and one of the other recognized schemes, CanadaGAP has some advantages, like the above-mentioned Canadian focus.
“We are small. This can be a benefit because we can provide close oversight of our limited auditor pool and smaller number of certification bodies, which can help maintain and improve auditor competency. Every year we spot check audit reports from all auditors, and over a 5-year cycle we conduct witness audits of every auditor,” said Gale. “Because we’re small, we can be hands-on.”
For more information:
Heather Gale
CanadaGAP
+1 613 829 4711