Canada Adopts New Federal Food Safety Law

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has won the unanimous consent of the House of Commons for Canada’s new federal food safety law. With its earlier passage by the Senate, that means the Safe Food for Canadians Act, Bill S-11, now becomes law with the routine “Royal Assent.”

                                                                         
Unanimous votes among the 308 Members of Parliament (MPs) in Commons are not seen often in Ottawa and Canada’s multiple parties rarely agree on anything but the crisis at the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta helped bring unity for the food safety law sought by the Prime Minister’s government.

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the new federal law:

• makes food as safe as possible for Canadian families;
• protects consumers by targeting unsafe practices;
• implements tougher penalties for activities that put health and safety at risk;
• provides better control over imports;
• institutes a more consistent inspection regime across all food commodities; and strengthens food traceability.

Additionally, CFIA outlined the improved food safety oversight, better legislative authority, and improved access to international markets as advantages of the new law. Specifically the agency said the new law promises:

1. Improved food safety oversight to better protect consumers/New prohibitions against food commodity tampering, deceptive practices and hoaxes
2. Streamlined and strengthened legislative authorities/Modernization and simplification of existing food safety legislation
3. Enhanced international market opportunities for Canadian industry