Food Processing

The food processing sector includes various industries and associations such as the milling industry, warehousing, the food and beverage industry and the Food Processors of Canada. Approximately 80% of processed food and beverage products available in Canada are supplied by the domestic food and beverage processing industry. In 2006, the industry had sales of processed food and beverage products amounting to $78B (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada).

The Canadian food processing industry requires protection against pests, including both pre-harvest treatment of the crop and post-harvest treatment of buildings. Commodities are not only subject to damage or contamination done by pests such as rodents and insects but might also be subject to bacterial or fungal contamination. Some of the approaches used to prevent such damage include the sustainable use of pesticides. Part of the sector's pest management needs is covered by pest control providers while the remaining part is self managed by the industry. However, in either case, food processors need to ensure that the crops they buy from producers have only been treated with pesticides that have been approved by not only the country in which the crop is grown but also the countries importing the processed food.

To benefit the food processing industry, Health Canada has dedicated staff that facilitates interactions between grower associations, growers, crop pest specialists, crop and pesticide distributors, food processors, researchers, scientists, registrants and regulators in order to work towards reducing risks in pesticide use. The goal is to help pesticide users to better understand the regulatory system and best meet their pest control needs.

This work provides stakeholders with:

• an understanding of pest control product issues from the user perspective
• assistance in understanding the processes and requirements of the regulatory system
• facilitated interactions between users and registrants of pesticides to address pest control issues
• monitoring of regulatory decisions to identify and follow issues affecting the industry to facilitate resolutions in their early stages
• assistance in identifying potential alternatives and reduced-risk pesticides inside and outside of Canada

The Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency welcomes your questions or comments. Should you require further information please contact the Pest Management Information Service. If emailing, please specify "Food Processing Sector" in the subject line. If calling, please request to speak with the Food Processing Facilitator.

Related Information

Some of the following hyperlinks are to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act. The material found there is therefore in the language(s) used by the sites in question.

• Pesticide Registration Process
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• Food and Beverage Industry
• Food Processors of Canada