Under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR), any food, seed, or animal feed that is labelled organic is regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Commodities such as cannabis plants and their cultivation, cosmetics, pet food, and natural health products are outside the scope of the Canada Organic Regime overseen by the CFIA. Products that are excluded from the scope cannot be certified under the Canada Organic Regime and cannot bear the Canada Organic Logo.
Compliance with Part 13 organic products of the SFCR is required if the product:
- has an organic claim on the label and is sold between provinces or territories or imported; or
- displays the Canada Organic Logo on the label and is sold within or outside of Canada.
Under Part 13 of the SFCR, products must be certified as organic according to the Canadian Organic Standards. The SFCR also outlines the organic certification system known as the Canada Organic Regime.
The purpose of the Canada Organic Regime is to regulate all parties involved in the certification of organic products (including operators, Certification Bodies and Conformity Verification Bodies) and to verify all applicable regulatory requirements, standards and guidance documents are being met.
The organic import requirements in Part 13 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations will be incorporated into the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS).
To implement the import requirements into Automated Import Reference System (AIRS), CFIA will use a phased-in approach which will involve creating new commodity identifiers (OGD extension codes) for organic products by commodity type. The fresh fruits and vegetables will be the first commodity group to be implemented on June 10, 2019. CFIA will provide detailed information on each phase throughout the implementation process.
We encourage you to sign up for AIRS email notification and visit this page regularly for updates.
Learn more on organic products and the requirements
- Canada Organic Regime operating manual
- Guidance documents
- Incorporating organic import requirements into AIRS
- Organic aquaculture products
For more information visit CFIA Organic Products.