Canadian government addresses feed industry irritants in regulatory review

Longstanding feed industry irritants related to the outdated Feeds Regulations and the onerous feed authorization process were among the issues highlighted in the agri-food and aquaculture regulatory roadmaps recently released by the Canadian government. The roadmaps were developed in response to the first round of targeted regulatory review consultations that are part of a three-year initiative announced in the 2018 federal budget that aims to “review regulatory requirements and practices that are bottlenecks to economic growth and innovation”. The roadmaps lay out plans for regulatory modernization in key sectors, in particular responding to irritants raised by stakeholders and containing proposals for legislative and regulatory changes, outlining plans to update policies and practices, and proposing novel approaches.

ANAC participated in the workshop and provided comments as part of the initial consultation. While ANAC and CFIA have been underscoring the importance of Feeds Regulations modernization for several years, the targeted regulatory reviews provided an opportunity to bring a new level of attention to the issue.

Of note, the agri-food and aquaculture roadmap acknowledges that “feed regulations are prescriptive and outdated, limiting the ability of industry to take advantage of the latest developments in animal nutrition”. In addition, there is reference to “pre-market assessment and authorization timelines [being] slow and unpredictable for feeds, seeds, fertilizers, veterinary biologics, and plants with novel traits”. Finally, the roadmap also recognizes that “third party oversight is not sufficiently considered in the CFIA’s risk-based inspection approach”. These points have all been part of ANAC’s longstanding case for the modernization of the Feeds Regulations. CFIA describes in the roadmap its work on regulatory modernization and outlines specific approaches and milestones in their process. View the full regulatory road map for agri-food and aquaculture on the CFIA website.