Statement from Minister Duclos on World Food Safety Day 2023

June 7, 2023 - Ottawa, Ontario  

The Minister of Health, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, has issued the following statement:

“Today I invite all Canadians to join me in recognizing World Food Safety Day 2023 because safe food is essential to our health and wellbeing. This year’s theme ‘Food Standards Save Lives’ reminds us that food standards help us ensure the food we eat and feed our families is safe to consume.  

Canada is recognized worldwide as having one of the best food safety systems. Our food standards are the result of years of applying the best science, evidence, and experience, including ongoing engagement and collaboration with international partners, provinces and territories, stakeholders, consumers, and industry.

Standards play a critical role in our food safety system by preventing foodborne illness and promoting a safe and reliable food supply in Canada and everywhere domestic food is exported. Our confidence and trust in the safety of our food is a direct result of how our standards are implemented by industry and enforced through inspection by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and our provincial and territorial partners.

Guided by science, the CFIA applies food standards in many ways, by:

• developing regulations and guidelines that reflect the latest international standards from Codex Alimentarius, in collaboration with industry, consumers, and other stakeholders;
• promoting compliance, to enable and empower importers, manufactures, retailers, and others in the supply chain to sell safe food;
• verifying and monitoring compliance through onsite inspections at food businesses across Canada;
• testing foods at 13 CFIA laboratories across Canada in support of monitoring programs, food safety investigations, and follow-ups to consumer complaints;
• protecting consumers from food fraud by analyzing food samples to verify that their composition complies with regulations;
• taking enforcement action if a food product does not meet Canadian food standards, and;
• acting quickly when determining that a food product should be recalled because it poses a health risk.

On top of that, under the Government of Canada's first-ever Food Policy for Canada, we are investing to improve access to food; combat significant challenges in accessing healthy food in Canada's North; increase consumer pride and confidence in our farmers; reduce food waste; and tackle food fraud.

Food standards save lives, and we can all play a role in keeping our food safety system one of the best in the world. To mark Word Food Safety Day, I invite you to take a moment to sign up to be notified about recalls, and remember you can also report a potential food safety issue."