Food > Consumer Centre > Food Safety Tips 

Background Information on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Fish Import Inspection Program

Questions and Answers

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is responsible for enforcing Canada’s food safety standards which are established by Health Canada. All domestic and imported food products must comply with these food safety standards.

The CFIA has a rigorous inspection system for both domestic and imported fish and fish products. The Agency regulates over 900 domestic fish processors and over 1000 fish importers. The CFIA’s fish import inspection program is based on standards and principles developed by the CODEX Alimentarius Commission, under the authority of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and is comparable to the import inspection systems of other developed countries, such as the United States.

Expert CFIA laboratory staff use state-of-the-science technology to provide specialized testing that helps ensure that Canada’s food supply is safe, and that food coming into the country (or exported to other countries) meets Canadian standards for safety and quality.

The CFIA’s food laboratories test for a wide range of chemical and biological contaminants such as veterinary drug residues, pesticides, metals, additives, bacterial pathogens, viruses, marine toxins, and additives.

The CFIA’s testing methodology to detect MG/LMG has been peer reviewed and has been published in the Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists. It is based on the methodology used in Europe. The CFIA lab is ISO 17025 accredited by the Standards Council of Canada. This is the internationally accepted standard used to assess laboratory quality systems.

As part of the CFIA’s fish import inspection program, anyone importing fish into Canada must be licensed by the CFIA. Import licences are issued to importers based on the following requirements: importers are obligated to keep accurate and complete records of shipments so that the CFIA can easily track their movement; provide the CFIA with information on the manufacturing processes and controls used to produce products; and notify the CFIA of each import shipment and to make each shipment available for inspection prior to distribution and sale in Canada. The frequency with which the CFIA inspects imported products varies based on food safety risk and the history of compliance for a particular product. The Agency audits importers to ensure they are meeting the conditions of licence.

All fish products imported by processors who have never shipped products to Canada are inspected at a rate of 100%, meaning that a representative sample of fish is taken and tested from each shipment. Again, the sample size is based on internationally-recognized standards.

The standard frequency of inspection for commonly imported products with a history of compliance is 5% of all shipments. This inspection frequency yields a high rate of confidence in the compliance level of imported products and is in line with the approach taken by most developed countries.

Currently, 100% of aquaculture finfish products from China and Vietnam (which represent approximately 80% of all imported aquaculture finfish products from Asia) are inspected and tested by the CFIA for malachite green. As a further measure, in the interim, the CFIA is increasing its random inspection frequency to 20% for all aquaculture finfish products from other Asian countries that produce these products.

As part of the standard inspection process, products are held and do not reach the marketplace unless they pass inspection. When the CFIA finds an imported product from a certain country that does not comply with Canada’s regulations, all subsequent shipments of that product from that country are inspected by the CFIA. These products must then establish a record of compliance before again being eligible for normal rates of inspection. Imported products that fail inspection are removed from Canada or destroyed. When testing results show the emergence of problems with products from a particular country, or the CFIA is made aware of problems in other countries, it will step up its inspection rate to 100% surveillance, as it did for aquaculture finfish products from China and Vietnam.

The CFIA maintains an electronic database to track import shipments coming into the country, monitor product testing results and to provide information on importers’ history of compliance. This provides the Agency with an effective tool to manage fish imports.

If the CFIA identifies products that were not appropriately dealt with by an importer, enforcement action is taken. Enforcement action can take on a number of forms, leading in some cases to prosecution under the Fish Inspection and/or Food and Drug Act and Regulations. The CFIA continues to work with the Canada Border Services Agency to verify that there are no pathways for the illegal importation/smuggling of Asian fish products.

• Main Page - Malachite Green