It is the responsibility of food establishments to ensure the food products they make, import, distribute or sell are safe for consumers. If a food establishment becomes aware of a potential food safety concern, they are expected to conduct appropriate food safety investigation, assess the risk and take appropriate products actions, including recalls.
Notify the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) immediately when you suspect that your firm has made, sold, distributed or imported a product that may pose a risk to consumers and continue to take action to mitigate the risk. Provide the CFIA with details of the incident including as much as possible of the following information:
- a detailed description of the nature of the problem
- the name, brand, size, lot code(s) of the affected products
- the distribution of the product: local or national
- when the product was distributed (specific time period and dates)
- details of complaints received and any reported illnesses
- details of your investigation and assessment
- details of your decision regarding the affected products
- details of your supplier's recall (if applicable)
- label(s) of the product(s) which are affected and may be recalled
- the total quantity of product made, sold, imported or distributed
- the name of your firm's contact with the CFIA
- the name and telephone number(s) for your firm's after-hours contact
These details are required by the CFIA to assess the adequacy of the food incident response and to determine if additional steps are needed to mitigate the identified risk; please see How we decide to recall a food product for further information. To help you better understand how to conduct a recall, please refer to Recall procedure: A guide for food businesses.
Recall contact list
The CFIA Area Recall Coordinators can be reached at these telephone numbers from 8 am to 8 pm local time, Monday to Friday and from 10 am to 6 pm local time on weekends and statutory holidays.
- Atlantic - 506-381-7683
- Quebec - 866-806-4115
- Ontario - 416-665-5049
- Manitoba - 204-797-4501
- Saskatchewan - 306-529-0671
- Alberta - 587-230-2518
- British Columbia - 604-292-5780