Navigating The Changing Import/Export Market And Its Impact On Food Safety
By Sam Lewis
At the 12th annual North American Summit on Food Safety, SQFI Regional Representative for Canada and Pacific Northwest U.S., Frank Schreurs, served as Chair for Day Two of the conference. In this roundtable discussion, led by Schreurs, Tim Byrne, director of quality and product innovation at Ganong, Karen Mills, director of quality assurance at High Liner Foods, and William Thomas, CEO of Thomas Utopia Brands offer suggestions for traversing the constantly-changing import/export market and discuss how those changes affect their companies’ food safety processes.
Missing small ingredients can often have large implications. Specifically focusing on the import/export market, are there any key learning experiences that you can share to help and strengthen food safety processes?
Tim Byrne, director of quality and product innovation, Ganong: The first thing that I’d like to share is just some of the little things, the little techniques, my company uses to try and stay on top of this ever-changing, fast-paced regulatory industry. For Ganong, we use, and lean, on market groups, such as Food & Consumer Products of Canada (FCPC), where members of that group sit on different communities. We also use regulatory resources, such as the CFIA and the FDA.
One of the things that we encourage is utilizing suppliers. By saying that, nine chances out of ten, there are one or two suppliers that you’re dealing with that are pretty big, and, if you have a good relationship with that supplier, you can usually tap into them to utilize their regulatory people, which we have done a number of occasions.
When ingredients and products are coming from the U.S., one of the big things we look into is the common name on the product specification. As a quick example, we manufacture Chicken Bones — a cinnamon hard candy with unsweetened chocolate on the inside. When we import the raw ingredient with the chocolate into that, the common name that the U.S. supplier uses is unsweetened bittersweet chocolate. So, when you’re developing your packaging, you have to use that name. You can only imagine the headaches that would cause to your marketing folks that just filled the packaging. Now, you have $20,000 or $30,000 worth of packaging on site, the CFIA comes in once a year for a packaging audit. During that audit, they notice this flaw and all of a sudden, you’re under a time window to right that packaging so that you can meet their value lines.
Karen Mills, director of quality assurance, High Liner Foods: Even though Tim and I produce different commodities, we are very-much aligned in heavily using FCPC — they’re a wonderful conduit between industry and government bodies. From a seafood perspective, we use the Fisheries Council of Canada and the Seafood Value Chain Roundtable.
However, High Liner Foods is very fortunate. We have our own expertise that has been extensively developed over the years within our company. However, at the same time, we do still reach out to those external resources, and, from our standpoint, whether you would be a small-, medium-, or large-sized business, they are there for a reason — to help you understand the regulatory landscape. . I can’t say enough good things of both FCC and FCPC.
William Thomas, CEO, Thomas Utopia Brands: The majority of Thomas Utopia Brands’ exports go to Africa, specifically Nigeria. For us, we don’t have the luxury of having an organization to fall back on, to advise us, or have any expertise specifically in that area. We have to depend on the Nigerian side to inform us about what it is required to get product into the country. That can be a quagmire at times.
For Thomas Utopia Brands, producing an agricultural product, we have to get approval from an organization called the Nigerian Agriculture, Food, and Drug Administration (NAFDA). It’s the Nigerian equivalent to the FDA of the CFIA. NAFDA’s approval looks a little like this. First, we must send product to them for testing. If the products are approved, they come here and do an inspection of our facility to ensure that, first, your company is real and they also want to conduct an audit looking for things similar to what we would audit them for.
If approved, a fee is paid and a registration number is received for each approved product and its label. Anyone looking to buy that product will know it by its label and registration number — it acts as a security member against adulteration and fraud.
Imports to Canada from the U.S. and exports to the U.S. from Canada continue to grow in volume for many food commodities. How do the main industry leaders work together, as well as with all regulatory bodies, to not only ensure food safety standards are maintained, but also balance those requirements with overall business needs?
Mills: High Liner Foods’ main business is back and forth with the U.S. We have to rely on the knowledge and execution within each part of our company on all sides of the border. With that, of course, we pull from each other about what the regulatory needs are for that country. We have been working with each other, and as much alignment as there is in food safety between the U.S. and Canadian governments, we are desperately trying to reach out to find out what work is being done between governments and what they’ve been talking about; it’s not all that clear.
For example, Alaskan Pollock’s name has recently been changed to its Latin name in the U.S. So, it is now called something different and we continue to call it the regular name here in Canada. Now, we have exactly the same fish, but it’s called something different and it’s not recognized on the Canadian fish list as what it is in the NAFDA’s and in the U.S.
Now, Canadian seafood processors are trying to reach out to both CFIA, as well as to the FDA, to find out, “Hey, what are you guys talking about? Are you in line with these name changes? Because now we can’t import certain things that are called this and we can’t escort back into the U.S. things called that.” We’re working through those.
That is just one example of the types of things we’re trying to find out and work through. We need both governments to speak to us and work with us because there are a ton of other things, whether it’s allergen labeling or any other time-sensitive thing, which can affect the company and your products significantly.
Thomas: We have that luxury between Canada and the U.S., but it is more difficult elsewhere. I’ll continue to use the example in Nigeria. There’s really no work being done between their agriculture people and the CFIA, or the FDA, for that matter. Partnership, creating that cooperation between regulatory bodies is important.
As you begin to source, ship, export, and use products from other parts of the world, that relationship doesn’t always exist in the same way it exists here, but it needs to at some point. I think events, conferences, training sessions, etc., are important in bringing different groups of people together. Going to forums, exchanging food safety ideas, and including members of the regulatory bodies in the conversation is what really benefits food companies who import and export.
The governments have certain priorities, target countries for export, and they will promote those, and not really work on non-priority countries. So how do we bridge that gap? It’s going to be continuing to do more business in those areas all the time. I see West Africa as a huge agricultural resource. It has all kinds of potential there; water, great soil types, and two growing seasons.
So there’s a lot of potential that has is yet to unfold there, and that is going to take time. But, as it does they may become major contributors to the supply chain, even more so than they are now. We always keep in mind building those trainings and being collaborative in any way that we can.
About Frank Schreurs
Frank Schreurs has more than 30 years of management and leadership experience in the food and beverage industry. Frank began his career in food manufacturing with the Kellogg Co. and transitioned into the services sector with the Guelph Food Technology Centre. Over the course of 18 years there he established and grew the consultancy and auditing business units into the number 1 service provider to the F &B sector in Canada. In 2013 he successfully transitioned GFTC through a merger with NSF International. During his 18 years Frank lead his team of seasoned industry professionals in the delivery of consultancy and auditing services to the entire supply chain. His knowledge of risk management throughout that chain makes him a sought after resource and presenter. Frank is currently operating a consultancy business as well as being the Canadian representative for the Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI).
About Tim Byrne
In 2003, Tim started his career in the seafood processing sector and then branched into the microbiological testing industry. With this gained knowledge and experience, Tim decided it was time to further broaden his knowledge and skills and in 2009 became an American Society of Quality – Certified HACCP Auditor. For 4 years, Tim travelled North America conducting food safety and quality audits for many different food processing sectors including French fries, Pizza, Bread, Meats, Poultry, Seafood, Cakes, Pies, Ice Cream & Milk. In 2013, Tim decided it was time to step away from all the auditing travel and move back into the manufacturing world. Currently, Tim is the Director of Quality & Product Innovation and is a part of a great team that makes up Ganong, Canada’s oldest independently family-owned and operated Chocolate company, located in Saint Stephen, New Brunswick.
About Karen Mills
Karen Mills is Director of Quality Assurance for High Liner Foods Inc. (Canada) and operates out of High Liner's processing facility in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She leads teams that are responsible for internal food safety and compliance, as well as supplier/ vendor import and regulatory compliance. She and her team members work corporately with other High Liner facilities based in the U.S. Karen received her B.S. in Animal Science from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, Nova Scotia.
About William Thomas
William Thomas is CEO of Thomas Canning (Maidstone) Ltd., a tomato processing company located in Ontario, Canada. He is also CEO of Utopia Integrated Fine Foods of Africa located in Abuja, Nigeria. Mr. Thomas is VP of Thomas Canning (Maidstone) Ltd, the first and largest processor of canned organic and climate smart tomato products in Canada and sold around the world. He has built organic production principles, practices and technology for tomatoes both in the field and the processing plant where none existed before. He is an expert in all aspects of sustainable tomato production, packaging, distribution, quality, and food safety. William has, and continues, to support the food industry through speaking engagements for various industry and non-industry organizations, as well as government functions.
He has over forty years of experience in all aspects of agricultural production and processing including sales, marketing, and management. During his career, he has held positions of teaching responsibility in universities, government, business, and industry associations. He has worked with and assisted small family-owned businesses to multi-national corporations worldwide, with diverse production and distribution channels including retail, wholesale and food service. William has a Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and a Masters from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.