Under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR), any food, seed, or animal feed that is labelled organic is regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Compliance with Part 13 organic products of the SFCR is required if the product:
- has an organic claim on the label and is sold between provinces or territories or imported; or
- displays the Canada Organic Logo on the label and is sold within or outside of Canada.
Under Part 13 of the SFCR, products must be certified as organic according to the Canadian Organic Standards. The SFCR also outlines the organic certification system known as the Canada Organic Regime. The purpose of the Canada Organic Regime is to regulate all parties involved in the certification of organic products (including operators, Certification Bodies and Conformity Verification Bodies) and to verify all applicable regulatory requirements, standards and guidance documents are being met.
All products which are sold in Canada labelled as organic and which bear the Canada Organic logo must have either been certified by an accredited certification body or by one which works under a country system which the CFIA has deemed equivalent.
The CFIA approves Conformity Verification Bodies (CVBs), of which IOAS is one, that assess the ability of certification bodies both inside and outside of Canada to conduct inspection and certification of farms and processors involved in production of organic products to be sold in the Canadian market. CVBs perform assessment of certification bodies according to the Canada Organic Regime but make a recommendation for accreditation to CFIA which is the ultimate decision maker. Accredited CBs are listed on the CFIA web site.
CBs are required to demonstrate conformance with ISO /IEC 17065 and the relevant requirements set out in the Canada Organic Regime (COR) Operating Manual.
The CFIA has negotiated equivalence agreements with various other country organic regulators. The updated list and detailed requirements can be referred to on the CFIA web site. The arrangements vary from country to country but some (including the USDA National Organic Program) permit products produced and processed in any country to be imported into the equivalent country on the basis of a COR certificate.
For more information, see the IOAS Canada Organic Regime Operating Manual.