The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is spearheading a 60-day public consultation to invite input on the draft guidance document titled “Determining the Need for Pre-Market Assessment for Plant-Derived Ingredients.”
The document is designed to offer transparency concerning the circumstances in which plant-derived ingredients necessitate a pre-market assessment as outlined in the Feeds Regulations. Additionally, it seeks to provide detailed insights into the defining attributes of plants that may lead to the classification of an ingredient as novel in the context of livestock feed.
The consultation is the long-awaited third piece in revamping Canada’s regulatory landscape as it concerns the CFIA’s Plants with Novel Traits regulations. The first two pieces of the puzzle were the PNT guidelines as they concern the environment and food. The CFIA has already released guidance on those areas, but policymakers and others in the industry have been waiting for a public consultation regarding animal feed.
Ian Affleck, vice-president of plant biotechnology for CropLife Canada, said in May that guidance on pre-market assessment for plant ingredients in animal feed is needed to help researchers move forward in using modern plant breeding technologies like gene editing.
“It’s important that we finish the third leg of the stool, so to speak, so that this technology has full access in Canada,” he said.
The consultation is open until Nov. 27. You can go here to submit your thoughts to the CFIA.
