Food Safety Audits

As consumers and the media have put the spotlight on food safety, increasing numbers of BC Blueberry growers are now doing third-party on-farm food safety audits. In the past few years, blueberry growers have completed CanadaGAP and/or GlobalGAP food safety audits depending on their needs and their buyers' requests.

Contact Major Dhillon, BCBC Food safety coordinator, at major@bcblueberry.com for more information.

Leave plenty of time before your audit date to get your food safety program in place. Most programs require at least three months of record-keeping activities for first-time audits, and audits should take place during production.  

Information:

Certification Options

Certification Costs

How to sign up for a third-party food safety audit

CanadaGAP- an independently-operated program run by not-for-profit corporation CanAgPlus.

To sign up for the CanadaGAP program, you must send in an application form available here. In addition, you must complete the Food Safety Binder linked here (under Fruit and Vegetables) or available in hard copy at the BC Blueberry Council.

Currently (as of May 2020) there is one certifying body qualified to perform CanadaGAP audits in BC, listed below. Others may be added in the future. Click here for information on these certifying bodies. 

NSF Canada- Contact

Isabel Varey 
Technical Support Coordinator, Agriculture
125 Chancellors Way,
Guelph, ON N1G 0E7

Tel: (226) 962-2216

Fax: (519) 836-1281
Email: ivarey@nsf.org

SGS

SGS helps manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, distributors and food service companies conduct a food supplier audit program to independently assess compliance across the supply chain. More information here.

GlobalGAP

There are over 100 certification bodies worldwide for GlobalGAP audits. Click here for more information on how you can be GlobalGAP certified.