United States: Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to allow preharvest testing option for importing romaine lettuce

Published Sep 16, 2021

Tridge summary

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has updated its requirements for importing romaine lettuce from California, allowing either pre-harvest or finished product testing between September 30 and December 31, 2021. This applies to romaine lettuce cultivated in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Benito, and Monterey counties. Producers must provide an attestation form and certificate of analysis per shipment, confirming the absence of E. coli O157:H7. This decision is welcomed by the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) as it believes preharvest testing is more efficient and cost-effective than finished product testing. The LGMA also emphasizes that only leafy greens supplied by its certified members are imported into Canada, ensuring adherence to food safety standards.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Salinas, CA: Yesterday the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced it will accept either pre-harvest or finished product testing as part of its requirements for importing romaine lettuce into Canada between September 30 and December 31, 2021.The requirements apply to romaine lettuce grown in four California counties: Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Benito and Monterey. Products from those four counties must provide an attestation form and certificate of analysis for each shipment to demonstrate that the romaine lettuce does not contain detectable levels of E. coli O157:H7.The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) BB #:210653 has recently developed and approved specific protocols for preharvest testing of leafy greens that its members are required to follow. The protocols have been reviewed by CFIA and were a factor in their decision to allow the preharvest testing option. Last year CFIA accepted only romaine that had undergone finished product testing, which ...

Source: Producebluebook