Annex U: Canadian Growth Enhancing Products-Free (GEPs-Free) Veal Certification Program

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Glossary

Approved tag

Attestra

  • Attestra is an organization that manages an animal identification and livestock traceability system of bovine, ovine and cervid producers located in Quebec using a database called SimpliTrace.

Barn

  • An operation that finishes veal cattle for slaughter.

Barn enrollment

  • The operator of the slaughterhouse receives and retains a copy of barn enrollment forms from farms which are interested in raising veal cattle under this Program.

Canadian Growth Enhancing Products-Free Veal Certification Program

  • A written program that includes the combination of all components contained in this document.

Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA)

  • National administrator of the cattle, bison, sheep, goat and cervid traceability programs.

CFIA

  • Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Eligible animals

  • Eligible animals under this program means animals born and raised in Canada that have never received Growth Enhancing Products (GEPs) during their lives.
  • According to Health Canada no hormone-based growth promoter has been approved in Canada for use in calves, for veal, whether fed on milk, grain or grass.
  • On April 2, 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration published a guidance document on the use of unapproved growth implants in veal calves. The US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service found evidence that there had been unapproved use of hormonal implants in veal calves. The US took action to further preclude the use of these implants in veal calves. In the US, the use of growth hormones in calves intended for veal production is illegal.
  • Health Canada's Veterinary Drugs Directorate and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have advised veterinarians, producer associations and other key stakeholders that growth promoting hormonal products have not been approved in Canada in any form for use in milk-fed, grain-fed or grass-fed calves intended for veal production.
  • For further information please view the following documents:

Enrollment application for the Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program

A statement signed by a designated barn representative acknowledging understanding of the objectives and requirements of GEPs-Free Veal Certification Program and taking responsibility for relevant practices applied to eligible animals after verification by the private veterinarian.

GEPs-Free

  • Absence of any substances having thyreostatic, oestrogenic, androgenic, gestagenic or beta adrenergic action (that is, GEPs) of which the use is prohibited by the European Union (EU). A complete list is available in Annex 1.

Lactanet Canada

  • Lactanet Canada is the administrator responsible for dairy bovine under the livestock identification and traceability program. Regulated parties may report bovine identification and movement information to DairyTrace, which is the database managed by Lactanet Canada.

Major deviation

  • Evidence of the administration, or likely administration, of any substance listed in Annex 1 to veal cattlethat are enrolled in the GEPs-Free Veal Certification Program.

Mixed status farm

  • A farm that has on the premises a combination of eligible and non-eligible animals or that uses or has on the premises products that contain GEPs.

Program

  • The Canadian GEPs-Free Veal Certification Program.

Veal

  • Bovine carcasses, weighing less than 190 kilograms (hide off), are classified as veal within the Canadian beef grading program.

For export to the EU, veal is the meat from young cattle aged 0 to 12 months. However, the definition may vary with each member state. Exporter must check with the importer before exporting veal.

Components of the program

1. Competent authority

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is the competent authority responsible for the certification of GEPs-free meat and meat products.

2. Program conformity

The Canadian Growth Enhancing Products-Free (GEPs-Free) Veal Certification Program is a veal industry-driven initiative that is followed to comply with import requirements set by countries that do not allow the use of GEP's during the raising of veal cattle destined for human consumption. Conformity with the requirements of the Program is the responsibility of the slaughter establishment. To confirm that operators meet the requirements of the Program, random audits of enrolled farms (1 farm per year) are conducted by CFIAwhile abattoirs are monitored continuously by the CFIA.

3. Animal Identification

Only animals born and raised in Canada are eligible for this Program. Animals must be identified under the Canadian National Livestock Identification and Traceability Program. Barns must maintain an accurate and up to date inventory of animals that are eligible for the Program. To maintain GEPs-free eligibility, barns must ensure that only eligible animals are supplied to abattoirs for this Program.

When animals moves from the birth farm or an auction market to a barn (an operation that finishes veal cattle for slaughter), a signed document by the birth farm / auction market (Annex 4) is required declaring that during their stay in this facility veal cattle were not exposed to GEPs..

4. Feed suppliers

Health Canada does not allow use of hormone-based growth promoter in veal calves.

Approved commercial suppliers of feed, or feed ingredients must complete a Feed mill affidavit (Annex 3) and provide it to the barns receiving their feed. Thereafter, the affidavit must be renewed every 6 months.

Suppliers of single feed ingredients (for example, barley, corn) and sources of concentrated minerals, vitamins, flavours and enzymes are not subject to this requirement.

5. Barns

The enrollment application must be accepted by the receiving abattoir(s) before calves are received at the barn. Animals eligible for the Program must originate from barns that have pre-enrolled with the abattoir(s) to which the animals will be delivered. Abattoir should keep a list of farms/barns enrolled in the Program.

To apply for enrollment, a designated representative of the barn must complete an enrollment application (Annex 2) following the verification by the attending/private veterinarian and send it to the abattoir. Enrollment renewals must be completed annually.

Barns enrolled in the Program must maintain a list of approved commercial suppliers (that is, feed mills and feed retail outlets) of feed or feed ingredients.

A declaration from the private veterinarian, stating that GEPs were not prescribed/administrated/fed to calves during the last 4 months and undertake to notify the barn owner and the abattoir if GEPs are used in the next 4 months (Annex 5) must be sent to slaughterhouse. Based on the compliance history, this frequency can be reduced to every 6 months.

When animals are shipped to an abattoir, veal information document (Annex 6) must be completed for each load of finished veal cattle.

When a major deviation involving eligible animals is identified at the feed supplier, the barn or the abattoir, the barn that supplied the veal cattle must cease the shipment of all eligible animals, that have been raised under same conditions, to all abattoirs. Advise each abattoir receiving animals of the deviation, conduct a thorough investigation on the cause of the deviation, prepare a report of the findings and corrective action to prevent the recurrence of the deviation and submit it to the abattoir for CFIA review.

6. Abattoirs

Barns must be enrolled with the abattoir prior to the delivery of eligible animals. The abattoir must maintain updated list of farms/barns enrolled in the Program. Upon request, the list will be made available to the CFIA.

The abattoir must retain barn enrollment application until a subsequent annual enrollment renewal application is received from that barn. In the absence of the receipt of an annual enrollment renewal application within the following 6 months, the name of the barn must be removed from the barn enrollment list until an enrollment application is received and approved by the abattoir. Until the enrollment renewal application is received and approved, the calves from this barn will not be eligible for this Program.

During receiving of GEP-free animals under this program, it is the responsibility of the operator of the abattoir to ensure that:

  1. GEPs-free animals arriving at the facility are sourced from a currently enrolled barn
  2. GEPs-free animals arriving at the facility are accompanied by a veal information document for veal cattle enrolled in the Canadian GEPs-Free Veal Certification Program (Annex 6)
  3. GEPs-free veal cattle have not been co-mingled with ineligible animals during their transportation to the abattoir
  4. upon arrival at the abattoir, GEPs-Free veal cattle are segregated from ineligible animals in separate holding pens

The CFIA must be notified prior to the slaughter of veal cattle intended for the Program.

The operator must develop and implement control programs to demonstrate that products produced under this program and destine to the EU meet applicable requirements and to assure complete segregation when both eligible and ineligible animals or products are present on premises. The control programs should clearly outline the controls that will be implemented to ensure that applicable requirements are met so that product eligibility can be established and, when applicable, to ensure that eligible products can be distinguished from ineligible products at all times. The control programs must be documented in such a way that products certified will be traceable to production records so compliance and accuracy of information appearing on the certificate can be demonstrated. The control programs must be acceptable to the CFIA and must include monitoring, verification and record keeping activities and deviation procedures and be auditable and effective.

7. Randomized sampling and testing

All EU eligible veal cattle slaughtered in EU approved federally inspected slaughter establishment will be subjected to a CFIA sampling program to monitor compliance with the EU requirements. "CFIA Sampling Program for Monitoring Growth Enhancing Products (GEPs) in Veal Cattle" is available from the local CFIA staff.

The sample will be taken from the muscle, urine or fat as required by the lab. The sample will be taken from randomly selected animals by specially trained abattoir staff under CFIA supervision. The first shipment of eligible animals from each supplying enrolled farm must be tested. The sampling plan will be updated on a yearly basis or as needed (for example, approval of a new establishment for export of veal to the EU).

Samples must be sent to a laboratory accredited by the Standard Council of Canada (SCC) or the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation Inc. (CALA) and the appropriate methodologies must be on their scope of accreditation. All laboratory results must be sent simultaneously, directly and on a timely basis to the plant, the private veterinarian and the CFIA Veterinarian-In-Charge (VIC). The cost of shipping and testing will be the responsibility of the operator.

Carcasses from sampled lot may be processed pending receipt of the test results. Veal products from sampled lots will be withheld from export to the EU until test results have been received.

If the test results are negative for GEPs, meat products from the lot will be released for export.

In the event of a positive test result for GEPs, the operator must implement corrective and preventive actions without delay to:

  1. confirm that all product potentially in non-compliance is controlled
  2. delist all animals from the involved barn which are raised under same conditions
  3. conduct a thorough investigation to identify and manage the cause of the deviation
  4. present the findings of the investigation, including corrective and preventative action plans, to the CFIA-VIC. The corrective and preventative action plans of the abattoir and barn of origin must be accepted by the CFIA-VIC prior to re-enrollment of the barn. CFIA will visit the farm for verification before re-enrolment of the barn, if needed
  5. only following its re-enrollment, the abattoir will resume the receipt of eligible animals from the affected barn
  6. the abattoir must test at least the first shipment of eligible animals provided by that supplier following a positive test result

In the case of port of entry (POE) violation, the above steps from (a) to (f) must be taken.

Annex 1: List of growth enhancing products (GEPs) covered by Canadian GEPs-Free Veal Certification Program

Growth Enhancing Products (GEPs) are drugs containing any ingredient listed below.

Stilbenes, stilbene derivatives; salts and esters of:

  • diethylstilboestrol
  • dienoestrol
  • hexoestrol

Thyreostats:

  • thiouracil
  • methylthiouracil
  • propylthiouracil
  • tapazole

Substances with oestrogenic or androgenic action; salts, esters or metabolites of:

  • trenbolone
  • methyltestosterone
  • nortestosterone
  • chlorotestosterone acetate
  • methylboldenone,
  • zeranol
  • ethinyloestradiol

Substances with gestagenic action:

  • chlormadinone acetate
  • melengestrol acetate
  • medroxyprogesterone acetate
  • megestrol acetate

Natural hormones:

  • oestradiol
  • testosterone
  • progesterone

Beta-agonists:

  • clenbuterol
  • ractopamine
  • Zilpaterol
  • any other members of this family of compounds are not permitted at any time during the lifetime of the GEP free veal

Annex 2: Barn enrollment application for the Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program

(Note: To be renewed annually.)

Part 1

  • Name of applicant (please print):
  • Legal name of business:
  • Address:
  • Mailing address (if different):
  • Provincial premises ID:
  • Contact:
    • Phone number:
    • Email address:
  • Average age of veal cattle at receiving:
  • Number of veal cattle intended for the Program (estimate):

Milk-fed Facility Box Grain-fed Facility Box

Part 2

  • Box I, the undersigned veal producer, declare that I wish to produce animals that will be eligible for the Canadian Growth Enhancing Products-Free Veal Certification Program.
  • Box Growth promoting hormonal products have not been approved in Canada in any form for use in milk-fed or grain-fed calves intended for veal production. The veal cattle produced under this Program will not be administered any GEP's.
  • Box I have a declaration on file from the birth farms and/or auction mart indicating that animals were not treated or exposed to any GEPs.
  • Box I have declaration on file from the private veterinarian that animals were not treated with any GEPs listed in Annex 1 of this program, during the raising of these animals. Private veterinarian has the responsibility to inform the operator of slaughter establishment and owner of the barn in case GEPs were used during raising of these animals.
  • Box The veal cattle for this program will be born and raised in Canada.
  • Box I have a letter of guarantee from the feed manufacture and/or milk replacer manufacture certifying that no GEPs were used.
  • Box The veal cattle for this program will be housed in separate barns from any animals being fed GEP's and any animals not being raised for this program.
  • Box The veal cattle for this program will be housed within the barn in separate pens from any veal cattle not born and raised in Canada.
  • Box I will present for transfer of ownership or slaughter under the Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program only animals that bear identification in accordance with the Health of Animals Regulations, Part XV-Animal Identification.
  • Box I understand that failure to keep proper records, or finding evidence of the use of GEP's in an animal presented under the Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program, will result in my removal from said Program until compliance with all requirements of the Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program is achieved.
  • Box Records and documentation related to this program will be held at the farm for two years and will be accessible for official verifications (CFIA, Foreign audits). Records of any medication, including in feed, used in the farm are also kept on site for two years.
  • Box I will allow Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials to obtain any relevant information from my private veterinarian(s), my supplier(s) of veal cattle, or my feed supplier(s) in order to verify compliance with the Program requirements.
  • Box I understand that veal products produced from veal cattle under the Program may be sampled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the contracted abattoirs for this program.

Name and signature of attending private veterinarian:

Date:

Producer's name (printed):

Signature:

Town/City:

Annex 3: Feed mill affidavit for Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program

(Note: To be renewed every 6 months)

Intended recipient of the feed and/or feed ingredient:

  • Barn name:
  • Barn number(s) (if applicable):
  • Name of owner:
  • Address (facility office/owner address):
  • Phone number:

This letter of guarantee certifies that:

Feed facility name:

Feed facility code:

Address (facility office/owner address):

Phone number:

  • Box Has appropriate procedures in place to ensure that all feed and feed ingredients delivered to your facility meet the requirements of the Canadian GEPs-Free Veal Certification Program.
  • Box Appropriate records are maintained through all phases of production to provide traceability of the feed to ensure it has not been in contact with GEPs.
  • Box In the event of the introduction, or likely introduction of GEPs into a feed they have received, will immediately notify an enrolled barn owner.
  • Box This affidavit is valid for 6 months.

Name of facility representative:

Signature:

Date:

Annex 4: Auction Market Declaration/Birth Farm Declaration for Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program

(Note: To be renewed every 3 months)

  • Auction market name/birth farm name:
  • Name of owner or representative:
  • Address (facility office/owner address):
  • Phone number:
  • Email address:

This letter of guarantee certifies that the following calves (list all tag numbers for calves supplied in the last 3 months):

  1. Ear tag number:
  2. Ear tag number:
  3. Ear tag number:
  • Box During their stay in my facility veal were not exposed to Growth Enhancing Products (GEPs).
  • Box This declaration needs to be updated every 3 months.

Auction market / birth farm representative signature:

Date:

Annex 5: Private attending veterinarian declaration for Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program

Veterinary clinic contact for the last 6 months

  • Name:
  • Address:

Barn name and number

  • Barn representative:
  • Address (where the animals are kept):
  • Phone number:
  • Box I declare that GEPs were not prescribed/administrated to veal cattle in this barn during the last 4 months and,
  • Box I undertake to notify the owner of the barn and the abattoir operator if GEPs were used in the next 4 months.
  • Box This declaration is valid for 4 months

Name of the attending veterinarian:

Signature:

Date:

Annex 6: Veal information document for veal cattle enrolled in Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program

(To be issued for each load of finished veal.)

Attach a list of tag numbers for veal cattle in this shipment.

  • Name of barn representative:
  • Address:
  • Barn address and Number:
  • Contact:
    • Box Phone:
    • Box Email:
  • Veterinary clinic contact for the last 6 months:
    • Box Name:
    • Box Address:
  • Number of veal cattle shipped:
  • Age of animals:
    • Box  ___ days
  • Destination:
  • Box I declare the animals were born and raised in Canada.
  • Box I declare that eligible animals were kept on the above-mentioned premises since arrival.
  • Box I declare eligible animals observed the prescribed withdrawal period for any medication administered (including medicated feed).
  • Box I declare eligible animals have not been exposed to or fed any Growth Enhancing Products (GEP).

Signature of barn representative:

Date:

Town/City – Province:

Slaughter plant

  • Receivers name and signature (printed):
  • Receivers signature:
  • Delivery date and time:
Date modified: