Food News, November 2018

 
  From the Nov 14, 2018 Issue of Food News
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 Workshops
.
“Save the Date”
Being GMP Ready in the Natural Health
Products (NHP) Sector
January 29, 2019 – Red Deer

This one-day workshop organized by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, aims to provide participants with an understanding of the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices). Join us to learn what it takes to develop and implement a GMP system and how to build an ongoing quality assurance program.

Complying with GMPs is a regulatory requirement under the NHP Regulations and is a post marketing, continuous activity for NHP in Canada. Whether you are manufacturing or co-packing, you must follow GMPs to ensure consistent quality and safety of your NHP products. Stay tuned for more details or email Margurite Thiessen or Ileana Costiuc for more information.

Food Processing Development Centre
Demand for food and beverage products with extended shelf life that have not been heat treated is growing. High Pressure Processing (HPP) is one way for processors to respond to this demand. This technology also has the ability to reduce or eliminate foodborne pathogens without negative impact on nutritional quality. Our Food Processing Development Centre (FPDC) in Leduc is equipped with a 150 litre HPP unit and is available for product and process development, interim processing, and research applications. For more information on this technology please contact us at 780-986-4793 or email ken.fahner@gov.ab.ca.

Biz Info Website
Are you thinking of starting a new business or adding a new product to your existing product line? Before you start, you need to do your homework and research what is already available and what is needed. This may seem like a daunting task, but there is assistance available.

Alberta Agriculture and Forestry has developed a web site called Biz Info to help Alberta value-add food and non-food businesses navigate their way through the start-up and growth challenges they may have. The objective of the website is to assist prospective and emerging entrepreneurs by providing helpful business, financial and marketing information that is essential when evaluating an idea, planning, operating and growing a successful business.

Regulatory Updates
The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) will come into force on January 15, 2019. To help businesses prepare for the new consolidated regulations, the CFIA will continue to publish new and updated guidance documents on a regular basis. The following documents were recently posted to the SFCR website:

New
On the Regulatory compliance landing page, now find: On the Meat products and food animal landing page, now find: On the Food Safety recalls and emergency response landing page, now find: Updated
On the Toolkit for businesses landing page, find two additional questions and answers: Traceability to help clarify requirements for businesses who use cross-docking, as well as for different business models (for example franchises versus corporations). To learn more about the SFCR, visit inspection.gc.ca/SafeFood.

Alberta Food Processors Association
Food Safety and Quality Training and Upcoming Courses.
  • BRC Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 8: Conversion for Sites; January 22, 2019 in Calgary (this course replaced the BRC Understanding the Requirements course).  Our 2019 schedule is available at http://afpa.com/fsq_courses or melody@afpa.com.
WHMIS 2015 is here Dec 1, 2018!  December 1 marks the official end of the transition period between WHMIS 1988 and WHMIS 2015. AFPA Members have access to free WHMIS online training.
New occupational health and safety changes came into effect June 1, 2018, and AFPA can help you transition. Employers are responsible for providing information and training to:
  • Ensure the health, safety and welfare of their workers, other parties, and the public.
  • Provide competent supervision training for workers, and prevent workplace violence and harassment which includes ‘bullying’.
  • Ensure competency of supervisory staff. This now includes education, knowledge and training in hazard assessment, incident investigation, workplace inspections, and OHS roles and responsibilities.
  • Establish a joint health and safety committee or designated worker representative.
Contact ed@afpa.com for details on AFPA’s OHS Roles & Responsibility training which covers all these critical points of compliance.
 
 
 
 
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For more information about the content of this document, contact Ordella Knopf.
This information published to the web on November 19, 2018.