Food Process Safety and Regulation Summary
Food process safety is extremely important if you are in the food industry. Learn about the latest regulations surrounding the safe handling of food to keep your customers and your business safe.
If you use forklift equipment in your food handling business, you can trust Wayco to keep your forklift running safely too. Contact us today to set up a maintenance schedule.
Importance of Food Process Safety
If you are in the food business in Canada, it is important that you understand the proper and safe way to handle food.
Whether your are a large or small food business, you and your employees need to understand and be properly trained on regulations and safe practices.
This includes practices involving importing, exporting, manufacturing, processing, treating, preserving, grading, packaging, or labeling food so that it is not compromised.
It Is a Legal Requirement: The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) became law in Canada in November of 2012, and fully came into force on January 15, 2019 when it was adopted.
The SFCR is a consolidation of 14 separate sets of existing food regulations. By combining them into one, the government hopes to have more consistency in its rules. As a food business, you are legally required to follow these regulations.
It Can Help Prevent Food-borne Illness Outbreaks: The main goal of food process safety is to keep consumers safe and decrease the number of food-borne illness outbreaks.
It Can Help Build Public Trust: If your business is following these regulations, your customers will feel more confident and will trust you and your products. Consumer confidence is always good for business.
It Can Help Prevent Costly Recalls: Food process safety not only keeps the population safe but it can also save your business a lot of money. Recalls are costly and they are often hard to recover from.
Safely handling food can cut down on the number of food-borne illnesses
Food Process Safety Guidelines and Summary
The SFCR outlines a general set of requirements that applies to a wide range of different foods. You can access those regulations here.
Some food categories have very specific guidelines and are discussed in separate segments of the SFCR. These include:
Dairy Products:
The guide gives you rules regarding raw milk or raw cream used to prepare dairy products. You will probably also want to consult the National Dairy Code to learn the requirements for handling and transporting bulk milk and the criteria for raw milk.
Eggs:
Shell eggs can contain health risks. If you are importing eggs, you need to make sure that the eggs you are bringing in meet the same requirements as the eggs produced in Canada.
The guidelines also help to restrict the movement of eggs that contain cracked or dirty shells and ensure that eggs are sent to the proper facilities for grading and processing.
You must discard any inedible eggs and not use them in any food processing
Processed Egg Products:
In the guidelines you will find that you can only process and treat eggs if they are
Edible
Do not have an abnormal odour
Are not mouldy
Have not been in an incubator
Do not have an internal defect
Are not leaking
Are free from dirt and other foreign matter
You must discard any eggs that are inedible and they must not be used to prepare processed egg products.
Fish:
The regulations will outline which types of fish are not permitted for import, such as live freshwater mitten crab. It also gives guidelines for safely importing live or raw shellfish.
Fresh Fruits or Vegetables:
The regulations will cover topics such as:
Grade and certification requirements for apples, potatoes, onions and other fresh fruits and vegetables imported from the U.S and other countries
Rules regarding when small shipments of imported fruits and vegetables are exempt from certification
Regulations surrounding in-transit shipments of fresh fruits or vegetables from the U.S.
Importers must follow the rules regarding the certification of fruits and vegetables
Meat Products and Food Animals:
This section will outline rules regarding topics such as:
Edible meat products
The humane treatment of animals
Ante and post-mortem examination and inspections
Slaughtering and dressing
Food animal information documents and document keeping
Importing and exporting of food animals
Food Packaging
The SFCR outlines general packaging requirements that include:
Packages must be clean
Packages must be suitable for its intended use
Packaged must be free from odour that might affect the food
Packages must include the weight or volume requirements referred to in the SFCR.
Food packaging must be clean an free from harmful odours
Preventative Food Safety Controls
Preventative food safety controls help to cut down on potential food safety hazards and help to reduce the chance of contaminated food entering the market.
As a food business, you are responsible for preparing, exporting, and importing safe food. It is important that you address potential hazards in areas such as:
Sanitation and pest control
Treatments and processes
Equipment
Maintenance and operation of establishments
Unloading, loading and storing food
Employee competence, health, and hygiene
Complaints and recalls
Wayco Is Committed to Workplace Safety
Wayco believes that all forms of safety in the workplace is very important, and that is why we offer the best forklift safety training programs in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
Our highly trained instructors will instruct your employees in the proper practices of operating forklift equipment safely. Contact us today to book your training sessions.
Wayco Offers Top Quality Service on All Forklift Makes and Models
If you are looking for top quality forklift maintenance and service on all makes and models, contact Wayco. Our fully equipped service and parts department is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Our qualified technicians are capable of properly performing maintenance services and inspections of all types.
Our knowledgeable staff can keep your equipment in top working condition, which means lower repair costs and higher machine efficiency. Contact Wayco today for all of your forklift maintenance and repair needs.
"We purchased a used fork lift from Wayco in January. It was extremely clean and in excellent condition when it was delivered. We have also had incredible ongoing service from the professionals at Wayco. Overall dealing with them has been an excellent experience."
