Notice to industry – Declaring the name of the food importer of record and the Safe Food for Canadians licence holder

Importers of food are required to provide certain information under paragraph 13(1)(a) of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR). For this purpose, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) uses the Integrated Import Declaration (IID), the same application used by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Currently, IID contains a single field to declare the name of the importer and a separate field to declare the importer Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licence number. With certain transactions, the importer of record declared in IID to CBSA may differ from the person who holds the SFC import licence so the importer name may not match.

The CFIA is in the process of reviewing the IID data fields to determine how best to capture the name and address of both the importer of record and the SFC licence holder, when these differ. In the interim, it is sufficient for the importer or broker to provide only the SFC licence number.

For questions regarding declaring imports of CFIA regulated products, please call the CFIA National Import Service Centre at 1-800-835-4486 (Mississauga) or 1-877-493-0468 (Montreal).