Advisory Services for Foods of
Plant Origin Processors
Introduction
The Foods of Plant Origin (FPO) Program within the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) provides food safety guidance
to non-federally registered foods of plant origin food processors in Ontario.
Food safety guidance is delivered by the Risk Identification and Management
(RIM) Unit staff located in Brighton, Midhurst, Vineland and Guelph. Contact
information can be found on the next page. A number of tools are used
by the RIM Unit to help FPO clients identify and manage food safety risks.
Advisory Services
- Environmental monitoring - To introduce foods of plant origin
plants to environmental monitoring as a tool to verify the effectiveness
of their cleaning and sanitizing programs, staff conduct ATP bioluminescence
and microbial environmental swabbing at volunteer plants. While the
number of no-cost swabbing sessions for each facility is limited, after
seeing the benefits of such a program, facilities often initiate their
own swabbing programs.
- Food Safety Assessments - To help identify strengths and weaknesses
of a plant's operating procedures and facilities, staff perform food
safety assessments (gap analysis) during on-site visits to individual
facilities.
- Mitigation approaches - In response to observations during
on-site visits and to e-mail and telephone inquiries, staff suggest
approaches to mitigate food safety concerns.
- Good Manufacturing Practices - To support producers and processors
who are pursuing formal food safety programs (e.g. Good Manufacturing
Practices or GMPs), staff conduct GMP writing workshops, review GMP
programs and offer constructive suggestions - however, staff do not
prepare individual plant programs.
- Assistance in addressing non-compliance - Product samples tested
under the ministry's Food Safety Monitoring Program are sometimes found
to be non-compliant with Health Canada guidelines/ standards. When this
occurs, staff assist the producer/processor in finding and correcting
the underlying problem.
Educational Resources
- Presentations - Staff make presentations on food safety topics
at foods of plant origin commodity group and other meetings.
- Infosheets - One or two-page infosheets contain technical information
covering a range of food safety issues for a variety of foods of plant
origin commodities.
- Guidebooks - Detailed commodity-specific guidebooks describe
GMPs that should be followed to ensure the production of safe food.
- Articles - Staff produce food safety-related articles for commodity
group newsletters and other publications.
- Business Information Bundles - Information on production methods,
technology, regulatory requirements and business and marketing options
for maple syrup and honey producers is provided in Business Information
Bundles (BIBs):
www.ontario.ca/maple
www.ontario.ca/honey
- Annual Seminar - An industry-wide seminar on a topic relevant
to all FPO commodity processors is held annually, usually in the Greater
Toronto Area. Recent topics have included Cleaning and Sanitation and
Controlling Listeria. Smaller, commodity-specific, seminars/workshops
are held in various locations across the province throughout the year.
Special Projects
Periodically, Ontario foods of plant origin producers/processors are
asked to participate in research studies designed by the ministry. These
studies assist producers/processors in identifying food safety risks,
as well as in assessing implementation of measures to manage these risks.
Recent examples include studies assessing the effectiveness of cleaning
and sanitation practices and the microbial quality of wash water at minimally
processed produce operations.
We Want to Hear From You!
We Want to Hear From you!
All non-federally registered Ontario foods of plant origin food processors
are invited to take advantage of the services offered by OMAFRA's Foods
of Plant Origin Program. For more information regarding educational resources
or seminars, presentations for your group or individualized advisory services,
please contact:
John Henderson
Risk Management Specialist
Telephone: 1-613-475-5175
E-mail: john.henderson@ontario.ca
Bengt Schumacher
Risk Management Specialist
Telephone: 1-705-725-7295
E-mail: bengt.schumacher@ontario.ca
Peter vanWeerden
Risk Management Specialist
Telephone: 1-905-562-1671
E-mail: peter.vanweerden@ontario.ca
Paul Bailey
Risk Identification and Management Coordinator
Telephone: 1-519-826-4380
E-mail: paul.bailey1@ontario.ca
Dr. Robert Blenkinsop
Food Scientist - Horticulture
Telephone: 1-519-826-4535
E-mail: robert.blenkinsop@ontario.ca
