The Canadian Food Inspection Agency thinks it's finally on the home stretch of completing its overhaul of food safety regulations to complete the implementation of the Safe Food for Canadians Act passed in 2012 by the Harper government. The Agency said in a statement that it's preparing to make the final version of the regulations public in the spring. At that time, it will spell out when various provisions are to come into force. However Food Processors of Canada (FPC) says there are five holes in the current regulatory proposals while Food and Consumer Products of Canada (FCPC) wants to see other improvements made to the proposed regulations. The package of regulations is intended to consolidate 14 sets of commodity-based regulations that CFIA inherited from various federal departments when it was created 20 years ago. Following passage of the Safe Food Act, CFIA began consulting industry, agriculture and consumer groups about what the new regulatory framework should contain A year ago, CFIA published its proposed final version of the regulations, which started a 90-day public comment period on them. It received more than 1,700 comments that helped frame the final package. FPC President Denise Allen said in an interview that CFIA's regulatory plan won't achieve its goals unless the Agency fixes the five holes. They are increasing border inspection of imported food products, putting federal and provincial food plants on an equal footing, reducing the scope of its Administrative Monetary Penalties for a more collaborative approach with processors on reaching food safety standards, establish a more realistic basis for a Product of Canada label and increase the number of food testing labs across the country. Food processors “want to work with CFIA to create a better food safety system,” she said. That will be an important ingredient in helping the food industry meet the government's goal of $75 billion in agrifood exports by 2025, which now stand in the $56 billion a year range. Susan Abel, FCPC's Vice President of Safety and Compliance, said CFIA recognizes the need for more and better definitions in its proposed regulations. There is a need “to better support for smaller enterprises that will have new and significant written food safety program requirements.” CFIA is also adopting a new system for sharing food safety information and documents that “has proven to be highly effective at retaining safety while hastening much needed updates to certain requirements to reflect new science, innovation, and technology.” While waiting for the release of the final package of regulations, “FCPC will continue to work with CFIA to ensure certain important elements, such as vendor qualification requirements, which are missing in this phase of development, will be addressed quickly in future regulatory activities,” Abel said. CFIA said the goal of its regulatory reform is “to strengthen Canada's international reputation as a leader in food safety by establishing consistent, prevention-focused requirements for all foods that are imported or prepared for export or interprovincial trade.” It wants to achieve a system that “supports enforcement, compliance and accountability while enabling opportunities for industry to innovate.” It categorized the 1,700 comments it received into technical issues, small business concerns, treatment of organic products, implementation and trade and competitiveness matters. Since 2013, the CFIA has participated in more than 300 external stakeholder events and reached thousands of individuals through face-to-face sessions, webinars, and two major food safety forums. Discussion documents were released in 2013, 2014, and 2015 and included initial drafts of regulatory text. The 2015 consultation specifically targeted micro and small businesses to better understand their unique needs and to explore options for reducing costs that would be imposed by the proposed regulations. The consultations showed overwhelming support for acknowledging the food safety systems already in place under recognized industry regimes, such as CanadaGAP as well as international standards such as Codex Alimentarius. There was also a strong desire to coordinate the regulatory changes with Health Canada's Healthy Eating Strategy due out this year to help mitigate labelling costs. CFIA noted that there were calls for additional training of its inspectors “to ensure consistent interpretation and application of the proposed regulations, as well as industry advice and technical assistance from the CFIA in real time.” There is also a clear need for government-industry partnership to work “on the development of additional guidance documents to ensure compliance with the regulations.” Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.