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DisclosureFood and Consumer Product Safety Action Plan
Government of Canada shares more details and launches discussion paper on Food and Consumer Product Safety Action Plan.
Strengthening and Modernizing Canada's Safety System for Food, Health and Consumer Products
A Discussion Paper on Canada's Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan
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PDF Version |
January 10, 2008
Table of contents
Introduction
The Government of Canada is committed to promoting the health and safety of Canadians by ensuring safe food, health and consumer products in the Canadian marketplace. This is a key federal role. That's why the 2007 Speech from the Throne committed to "introducing measures on food and product safety to ensure that families have confidence in the quality and safety of what they buy."
On December 17, 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada's Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan. The Action Plan proposes a series of initiatives to modernize and strengthen Canada's safety system for food, health and consumer products and to better support the collective responsibilities that government, industry and consumers have for product safety. These initiatives focus on:
- Preventing problems in the first place - Government would provide better product information to consumers and guidance to industries on building safety throughout their supply chains. This would encourage a renewed focus on prevention.
- Targeting the highest or unknown risks - Government would be able to require companies that produce and/or supply consumer and health products to conduct safety tests and provide the results. That information would allow a closer watch on products where the risks are not yet fully understood or that pose the greatest potential hazard to the public.
- Rapid Response - New legislation would allow the Government to take faster action than ever before to protect the public when a problem occurs. This includes the power to pull unsafe consumer and health products from store shelves and enhanced capacity to oversee food product recalls.
The key departments that currently administer and enforce the Acts that govern food, health and consumer product safety are: Health Canada, Canada Border Services Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The Action Plan recognizes that the vast majority of today's manufacturers, processors, distributors and importers provide Canadians with safe food, health and consumer products. At the same time, it reflects the need to modernize and sharpen the focus of Government action to protect Canadians. The Action Plan responds to the new technological and economic realities of the 21st century, such as globalization and the introduction of more complex products.
Ensuring the safety of food, health and consumer products is a shared responsibility. The federal, provincial and territorial governments, industry, consumers and trading partners each have roles to play.
Health products include human and veterinary drugs, vaccines, blood and blood products, natural health products, biologics and genetic therapies, medical devices and other therapeutic products.
Consumer products are those products that adults and children commonly use for personal, family, household or garden use or in recreation or sports.
Food means anything thing that people eat or drink, and includes chewing gum, bottled water and ingredients to be used in food, such as the flour that will be used to make bread.
1. Overview
1.1 Defining the Problem
In the recent past, Canadians have read or heard about incidents of unsafe food, health and consumer products, including: the global withdrawal of some non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (cox-2s); high levels of lead found in imported children's toys; and food recalls that crossed national boundaries. These events, changing consumer demands, new technologies and the increasing complexity of global supply chains are the major drivers behind the need to modernize regulatory tools.
Canada's current safety regime is solidly based on the best scientific evidence to determine the risks and benefits of products, and has served Canadians well for many years. It is now outdated however, and reflects an era in which the system operated differently. On the supply side, for example: products were predominantly manufactured and produced in a local plant from limited sources; product development was slow. On the demand side, consumers had fewer choices; and the volume and scientific or technical complexity of available products was considerably less than today.
Today, industry needs to innovate quickly to compete globally. Globalization has expanded supply chains, often across multiple borders. As a result, many products manufactured in one country are made from parts and ingredients that have been produced elsewhere, and many products used by Canadians are imported. Overall, the global trade environment is very complex and the number of products and producers is vast and growing. Consumers want more choice and more involvement with health professionals in managing their health, but making informed decisions about the vast array of health, consumer and food products is increasingly difficult - and the challenge is further complicated by the fact that accurate and reliable safety information is not always readily available.
1.2 Toward a Modernized Safety Regime
This Action Plan is based on three fundamental principles: 1) industry has a responsibility for the safety of products it brings onto the market; 2) consumers and health professionals need access to accurate information to make informed decisions; and (3) Government must have the clear authority it requires to address health and safety risks.
The Action Plan proposes to enhance Canada's health and safety protection system by: supporting collaboration; strengthening safety programs; and replacing outdated statutes with new regimes. Fundamental to the Action Plan is a focus on active prevention, targeted oversight and rapid response.
Active Prevention
To encourage a renewed focus on prevention, emphasis would be placed on building-in safety considerations in the development or use of products, to prevent as many incidents as possible. Government would provide information to consumers and work closely with industry to promote awareness, provide regulatory guidance, help identify and systematically assess safety risks at early and ongoing stages, and develop standards and share best practices.
Targeted Oversight
The proposed approach recognizes the need to detect safety problems as early as possible and verify the benefits and risks at all stages in a product's lifecycle. Government would have improved authorities to ensure that the necessary actions are being taken to both determine the safety profile of products and to verify that preventative measures are being implemented effectively. Additionally, the Government would have clear authority to promptly intervene if necessary when risks are identified.
Rapid Response
The Government would have authority in areas where none currently exists, to compel appropriate responses to identified risks. For example, the Government would be equipped to respond rapidly to remove unsafe consumer and health products from shelves, preventing them from reaching consumers, and by having the authority to require that industry issue public advisories about product risks.
Framework for Canada's Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan
1.3 Common Issues
In implementing a modernized safety regime, it is important to note that food, health and consumer product safety regimes are not all regulated in the same way. However, a number of gaps or pressures are common across all regulatory systems and are being addressed through integrated and complementary measures.
Improved Oversight of Imported Product Safety: The volume of imports has increased substantially in the last ten years, with products coming from a wide variety of countries, not all of which have similar safety standards. At the same time, in today's environment of global supply chains, it is often difficult to differentiate between imported and domestic products. Further, products should be safe wherever they are produced or made, meaning new safety rules should not discriminate unfairly against imported products over domestic ones. The Action Plan proposes to enhance Canada's safety system overall, regardless of product origin, and to ensure that new rules are applied fairly and consistently, regardless of whether a product is imported or produced domestically.
Improved Authorities to Take Compliance, Enforcement and Other Corrective Measures: Authorities governing food, health and consumer products in Canada come from legislation developed in the 1950's and 60's; and as a result, they are out of step with modern realities and needs. For example, fines and penalties are low compared with those of our international trading partners and other Canadian legislation. To form an effective deterrent, fines and penalties must reflect the impact violations can have on health and safety. Under the Action Plan, fines and penalties would be updated so that they act as effective deterrents and reflect current economic realities.
As well, The Government of Canada currently lacks sufficient authority to issue mandatory recalls of a health or consumer product if it poses a serious or imminent risk to health and safety or to compel manufacturers to take steps to reduce the risk associated with a product, such as issuing a public advisory or changing a label. Enhancing the Government's authorities in these areas would ensure that action can be taken more quickly to address risks to Canadians and that Canada's product safety regimes are comparable to those of other countries.
Improved Information for Consumers and Decision-makers: Currently, for both consumers, governments and industry; food, health and consumer product information is often hard to access, use or share, due to its complexity, incompleteness or the fact that the confidentiality of some information must be protected. Action Plan measures across all types of products will support the distribution of greater and more accessible, consumer-friendly and credible product information.
