Annex U: Canadian Growth Enhancing Products-Free (GEPs-Free) Veal Certification Program
On this page
- Glossary
- Components of the program
- Annex 1: List of Growth Enhancing Products
- Annex 2: Barn enrollment application for the Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification program
- Annex 3: Feed mill affidavit
- Annex 4: Auction market declaration / Birth Farm Declaration
- Annex 5: Private attending veterinarian declaration
- Annex 6: Veal information document for veal cattle enrolled in Canadian Veal Growth Enhancing Products Certification Program
Glossary
- Approved tag
-
A tag, chip or other indicator approved according to subsection 173(1) of the Health of Animals Regulations. An approved tag includes any tag approved under the National Livestock Identification and Traceability Program (such as those allocated by Agri-Traçabilité Québec (ATQ) and the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) that provides unique identification for the animal in a single-use and tamper-evident tag.
Additional information on CCIA and ATQ can be found on the following links:
DairyTrace, a new national dairy cattle traceability program and was implemented in the fall of 2020, providing a single, common framework for dairy farmers to track animal identity and movements. CFIA has approved DairyTrace as an administrator.
- 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 to raise 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.
- Calves
- Male or female bovine animals under 6 months of age. For more information consult the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Veal Cattle.
- Cattle
- Refers to cattle of all ages.
- CFIA
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
- Eligible animals
- 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.
Use of hormonal growth implants in veal calves
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:
Eligible animals under this program means animals born and raised in Canada that have never received Growth Enhancing Products (GEPs) during their lives.
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 Veal GEPs-Free 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.
- Major deviation
- Evidence of the administration, or likely administration, of any substance listed as a GEP in this program to veal that are enrolled in the Veal GEPs-Free 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 Veal GEPs-Free Certification Program.
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 animals 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 CFIA-Regional Veterinary Officer (CFIA-RVO) while abattoirs are monitored continuously by CFIA officials.
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 eligibleanimals are supplied to abattoirs for this Program.
When animals are sourced from auction market and not directly from a barn, a signed document by the auction market declaring that during their stay in this facility calves were not exposed to GEPs. Similar declaration will be required from birth farm as well (Annex 4).
4. Feed identification, reception, mixing, and storage
Health Canada does not allow use of hormone-based growth promoter in veal calves.
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.
Approved commercial suppliers of feed, or feed ingredients must renew their declaration every 6 months (Annex 3).
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. Barn enrollment
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. Enrollment renewals must be completed annually.
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. Based on the compliance history, this frequency can be reduced to every 6 months.
In the event of a major deviation involving eligible animals, the barn that supplied the veal cattle must cease the shipment of all eligible animals that have been raised under same conditions. 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 official review.
6. Abattoir reception of animals
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. The list will be available to the CFIA officials.
The abattoir must retain enrollment applications until a subsequent annual renewal application is received. In the absence of the receipt of an enrollment renewal application within the following 6 months, the name of the barn must be removed from the barn eligibility list until an enrollment application is received and approved by the abattoir.
It is the responsibility of the operator of the abattoir to ensure that:
- GEPs-free animals arriving at the facility are sourced from a currently enrolled barn
- GEPs-free animals arriving at the facility are accompanied by a veal information document for veal enrolled GEPs-Free Certification Program (Annex 6)
- GEPs-Free veal cattle have not been co-mingled with GEPs-fed animals during their transportation to the abattoir
- upon arrival at the abattoir, GEPs-Free veal cattle are segregated in holding pens
7. Abattoir procedures
The CFIA must be notified prior to the slaughter of veal cattle intended for the Program.
Both incoming veal and veal product destined to EU must be segregated from product not eligible to export to EU during production and remain identifiable until export takes place. All meat products for export to EU must be segregated by either physical separation (space) or by time to ensure complete segregation between eligible and ineligible products for export to EU.
The operator of the abattoir must document a control procedure which outlines clearly the controls that will be implemented to ensure all applicable requirements for the certification of GEPs-Free veal and veal products will be met and that products eligible for the Program can be readily distinguished at all times from non-eligible products. The control procedure must include monitoring, verification, and record-keeping activities, deviation procedures, and must be auditable and effective. The control program must ensure proper segregation and identity of GEPs-Free and non-eligible products. The control procedure must be submitted to and accepted by the CFIA.
The operator's control procedure must ensure traceability through the slaughter and production processes until packaging and appropriate labelling.
8. Randomized sampling and testing
A random testing of eligible veal carcasses is done once a month by the operator. The sample will be taken from the muscle, kidney or liver of randomly selected animals by specially trained abattoir staff under CFIA supervision. The operator must randomly test for all classes of GEPs. The first shipment of eligible animals from each supplying enrolled barn must be tested. The frequency of testing can be reduced after receiving satisfactory results for 1 year.
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 (CFIA-VIC).
Carcasses from sampled lot may be fabricated pending receipt of the test results. Veal products from sampled lots will be withheld from export until the results of the test have been received.
If the test results are negative for GEPs, meat products from the lot will be released for export shipment.
In the event of a positive test for GEPS (for example, a major deviation from Program requirements), the operator must implement corrective and preventive actions without delay to:
- confirm that all product potentially in non-compliance is controlled
- delist all animals from the involved barn which are raised under same conditions
- conduct a thorough investigation to identify and manage the cause of the deviation
- 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 must be accepted by the CFIA-VIC prior to re-enrollment of the barn. CFIA official visit the farm for verification before re-enrolment of the barn to resume the shipment of animals if needed
- only following its re-enrollment, the abattoir will resume the receipt of eligible animals from the affected barn
- 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 (e) must be taken.
Annex 1: List of growth enhancing products
List of GEPs covered by GEPs-Free 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 substance containing GEPs.
- Box I have declaration on file from the private veterinarian that animals were not treated with any substance containing the 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 substances 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.
- Box The veal cattle for this program will be housed in separate pens from any veal cattle not born and raised in Canada within the barn.
- 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.
- Box Records and documentation related to this program will be held at the farm and will be accessible for official verifications (CFIA, Foreign audits). Records of any medication, including in feed, used in the farm are kept on site.
- Box I will allow Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials to obtain any relevant information from my veterinarian, 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 Canadian Growth Enhancing Products Free Veal Certification Program may be sampled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the contracted abattoirs for this program.
Name and signature of attending veterinarian:
Date:
Producers name (printed):
Signature:
Town/City:
Annex 3: Feed mill affidavit
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 Veal GEPs-Free 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
- 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):
- Ear tag number:
- Ear tag number:
- Ear tag number:
- Box During their stay in my facility veal were not exposed to GEPs.
- Box This declaration needs to be updated every 3 months.
Signature:
Date:
Annex 5: Private attending veterinarian declaration
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 Veal Growth Enhancing Products 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 <243 days
- Box >243 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: