Workshop: Record Keeping for Financial and Food Safety Success

It doesn’t matter if you’re a start-up, or a seasoned business owner who grows crops of any kind. This session is for anyone who wants a gold star in field and crop record keeping and facilitate meeting Canada GAP certification and streamlining that process through good bookkeeping.

Please join us for the next Getting Into the Weeds session on Thursday, March 5th from 9:00 - 4:00 at the Hilton Garden Inn near the Halifax Airport.  Registration is required, the cost of the workshop is $50 and includes lunch.  Click here to register.

Excellent crop records are needed for:

1. 1. On farm food safety documentation
2. 2. Buyer requirements
3. 3. Traceability
4. 4. Evaluation of results - production and financial

This hands-on workshop will give you tools for recording and retrieving the information you need to satisfy the above requirements.

Participants will be using their own information to create a data file and enter records; not sample data. The instructor will be available to all participants to answer questions and provide guidance. Handouts will be provided. Please note there will be some pre-workshop prep by participants.

Upcoming Canada GAP workshops

Canada GAP Workshops

The updated versions of the CanadaGAP Food Safety Manuals have been released and will take effect on April 1, 2020. Become familiar with these new updates at one of Perennia’s CanadaGAP workshops happening in March with Kim Best from Prospect Agri-Services. You can find the full details in the poster. Don’t miss out on this opportunity! Registration is now open on our website.
 

Contact Us

Our Quality and Food Safety Team can help in a variety of ways. If you have training questions, contact Shelly MacDonald. If you need help with a regulatory issue, contact Rick Kane. If you have any other food safety concerns or questions contact Elaine Grant, and she will direct your query to the appropriate team member.

Upcoming Webinar "Food Safety Success - Are You Ready?"

Join us on Wednesday, February 12, 2020, 1pm-3pm where you’ll hear from members of Perennia’s Quality and Food Safety Team, Elaine Grant and Shelly MacDonald. Elaine and Shelly will give an overview of Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) requirements pertaining to fresh produce and how SFCR affects NS produce growers.

They will also discuss how to reopen the door to retail while meeting regulations and making it work for your operation. You will also be provided with an overview of the Nova Scotia Agri-Food Accelerator Program.

This session will be hosted as an online webinar, so you can watch from the comfort of your own home or a place that is most convenient for you! Register on Perennia's website.

Viewing parties for this webinar are being organized at several points around the province*.  If you are interested in seeing if there is a location near you, please contact Jill MacDonald and see the webinar on the Big Screen!

*Please note, this is only a viewing of the webinar which will be broadcast from another location. Questions can be asked to the speaker through the chat function during the session or can be emailed to Jen Haverstock at the end of the session for a response. 

New Online Food Safety Courses

Need to learn more about food safety?  Wondering what HACCP is? Then Perennia's online Food Safety Fundamentals courses might be right for you.  Start with Introductory Skills for Creating Your Food Safety Program and move on from there if you'd like to. 

These courses are short (about 2 hours), don't have to be completed all at once, and can be done from the comfort of your home or office as long as you have an internet connection.  They are ideally suited for busy entrepreneurs, new packing-line or processing workers, or as a refresher for any employee working with food.

Consultation on proposed Safe Food for Canadians Regulations

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is currently accepting comments on the proposed regulations  through the Safe Food for Canadians Act.  The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations mostly pertain to businesses that import or export food or prepare food to be exported or sold across provincial lines.  You can have your say about the proposed regulations by going here: http://inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/acts-and-regulations/regulatory-initiatives/sfca/consultation/eng/1426531180176/1426531265317 The deadline for comments is April 21, 2017.

At the above link you will also have access to several interactive tools, such as:

• Would you need a license?
• Would you need a Preventative Control Plan?
• What would your traceability requirements be?

Safe Food for Canadians Act

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has opened public consultation on the proposed Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.

This 90 day consultation closes April 21 2017, please take this opportunity to have your say! http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/acts-and-regulations/regulatory-initiatives/sfca/consultation/eng/1426531180176/1426531265317
 
CFIA is also having online and in-person information sessions, to find out more, please click here: http://inspection.sondages-surveys.ca/surveys/CFIA-ACIA/proposed-sfcr-info-session/?l=en