CanadaGAP® is a food safety program for companies that produce, handle and market fruits and vegetables. It is designed to help implement and maintain effective food safety procedures in fresh produce operations.
CanadaGAP certification is given to the process, not the products, and is based on two manuals, one specific for greenhouse production, the other for other fruit and vegetable operations.
These manuals are designed so that companies can implement Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and the HACCP program in their operations. The program is also designed so that fresh product marketers can implement the best practices in the management of suppliers and traceability of their products.
Benefits of becoming CanadaGAP® certified
- Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Recognition – Certification Options B, C D (Repacking and Wholesaleling)
- It is recognized by the Canadian Government
- It complies with the standard and its food safety program is continuously maintained
- It has a system of procedures that minimize the risk of product contamination.
Control Union offers certification to the CanadaGAP program and will inform you about the audit program that corresponds to your operation.
Certification process
- Application: First, complete the application (Enrolment form) directly with CanadaGAP via the link: https://www.canadagap.ca/certification/enrolment-form/ , selecting Control Union as your Certification Body. CanadaGAP will bill you the first annual program fee, this fee will be billed annually on the anniversary of your enrollment. If your operation is enrolled in a four-year audit cycle, CanadaGAP uses its annual program fee to pay certification bodies for self-assessment review and random audits. Audit fees will be collected through Control Union. *CanadaGAP will assign the audit to CUP, if you have selected us as your certification body, and you must complete our Application Form and we will send you an agreement with the Terms of Contract.
- Contract: If you agree with the agreement, return a copy signed by the legal representative. Once this is done, you enter into an agreement with CU Services to join one of our certification programs.
- Planning: Upon receipt of the signed agreement, CU Services will schedule your inspection.
- Inspection: CU Services will perform a full on-site audit. If non-conformities are found, corrective actions must be submitted. The auditor will review and give approval to the corrective actions presented.
- Certification: Based on the audit results, the certification committee will perform a technical review of the report and determine compliance or non-compliance with the CanadaGAP standard. If complied with, a CanadaGAP certificate of conformity will be issued, which will be sent to CanadaGAP together with the audit report.
- Certification maintenance: Each year after initial certification, you will need to go through the certification process described above again. Additionally, the client can receive audits of different types in their operations such as: follow-up, expansion of scope, unannounced audits, random audits, among others.
The normative documents of the CanadaGAP standard can be found at the following link:
Manuals:
https://www.canadagap.ca/manuals/Checklists, Reporte de acciones correctivas, formato de cambio de estado, auto-evaluaciones/auto-declaraciones (A1/A2), entre otros, en el menú de
Tools:
https://www.canadagap.ca/For more information:
Términos y Condiciones – Control Union Services S.A.C