Kelowna, BC – On-Farm Food Safety programs are implemented to protect public health
and maintain confidence in the quality of food, and the BC Fruit Growers’ Association
(BCFGA) today announced a program that will provide an incentive for its members that
participate in food safety. Virtually all tree fruit growers in BC participate in a food safety
program, and the primary food safety program is CanadaGAP (“GAP” for Good
Agricutlural Practices).
Enrolling in food safety is a cost to the grower, ranging from $425 to several thousand
dollars per year for fees paid to accrediting bodies. Meeting program standards requires a
significant amount of time and often leads to changes in farm practices and record keeping.
The BCFGA Executive is composed of tree fruit growers, and they have direct experience
with the cost, effort and occasional frustration of implementing food safety programs on
the farm and at the same time recognize the benefit of food safety in giving confidence
and promoting our apples cherries and soft fruit.
"We feel that giving the grower a one time break by providing an incentive will strengthen our industry’s commitment to food safety,” said BCFGA President Fred Steele.
The BCFGA is also seeking to make the food safety program requirements practical. The
BCFGA is communicating with CanAgPlus, the certifying organization for the CanadaGAP
program, to request sensible rules that deal with proven food safety risks (i.e. not
hypothetical risks). Also, the BCFGA will ask the Canadian Horticultural Council Annual
Convention in March to advocate for a single, sensible food safety program, to avoid a
proliferation of competing retailer based food safety programs with different standards in
each program.
For the incentive program, grower members of the BCFGA will receive a credit of $425
towards food safety costs if they are members of the BC Tree Fruit Cooperative, or a
grower member can apply directly to the BCFGA for the incentive.
BC Tree Fruit Cooperative is the largest producer cooperative in Canada. All members of the
cooperative participate in food safety.
“The BCFGA appreciates the ability to provide this program, through a dividend
from its wholly owned subsidiary Summerland Varieties Corporation, and with the
assistance of BC Tree Fruit Cooperative in efficiently delivering the benefit to
growers,” concluded Steele.
The BCFGA is an agriculture association with a membership of 530 commercial tree fruit
growers in BC. It celebrates its 128th anniversary in 2016.