News

FYI. From Health Canada:

Dear Interested Canadians and Stakeholders,

Health Canada launched the Healthy Eating Strategy for Canada on October 24, 2016. The goal of the Healthy Eating Strategy is to create a food environment where the healthier choice is the easier choice. Chronic diseases are a major public health concern in Canada. Unhealthy diets high in saturated fat, sugars and sodium are one of the top risk factors for obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Health Canada is proposing to introduce mandatory front-of-package labelling for foods that are high in nutrients of public health concern, namely saturated fat, sugars and/or sodium. Front-of-package labelling will provide quick and easy guidance to help you make informed choices about packaged foods and help improve the nutritional quality of packaged foods available in the marketplace.

Health Canada is launching a consultation on front-of-package labelling. The official Canada Gazette, Part I consultation will take place from February 10 to April 26, 2018. Please note that the Canada Gazette is available online on Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern time, ahead of its publication on Saturday.

Since we want to hear from as many Canadians as possible, we have also created a short, consumer-friendly online consultation for you to tell us which front-of-package nutrition symbol you find useful. This consultation is open today until April 26, 2018.

Your responses will help guide the choice of a nutrition symbol for the front of food packages in Canada. We invite you to participate in both front-of-package labelling consultations and to spread the news about the consultations to your family, friends and colleagues.

Health Canada will be holding a one hour webinar on March 1, 2018 that will provide a technical overview of the Regulations Amending the Food and Drug Regulations (Nutrition Symbols, Other Labelling Provisions, Partially Hydrogenated Oils and Vitamin D) posted in Canada Gazette Part I on February 10, 2018.

We invite you to send us any questions you may have about the regulatory package by  February 22, 2018. We will use your questions to inform the webinar content. Please submit your questions to: Nut.Labelling-Etiquetage@hc-sc.gc.ca

Invitations to the webinar are forthcoming.

Thank you.

Our 2017 AGM Survey is now out. Please take a few minutes of your time to fill this out, thank you! Your feedback is greatly appreciated in helping us plan our future events!

https://goo.gl/forms/TwdipBVohN9MA5Hw1

Click here to read our BCFPA Grapevine Newsletter (January 19, 2018, Vol 5, Issue 01)!

Hello BCFPA Members!

For those interested in sponsoring our events and student activities, we have a sponsorship form available on our website.

Click here

Dear BCFPA Members,

On behalf of the BC Food Protection Association Executive Board, we would like to thank you for your generous support in 2017. We hope you consider renewing your membership for 2018.

We would like to inform you of our 2017 Annual General Meeting on January 29, 2018 at the Shadbolt Centre for the Performing Arts (6450 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby, BC).

Visit our website to register and for more information: www.bcfoodprotection.ca

Registration has been extended to January 28! Register today to attend our AGM!

Attendance is FREE for BCFPA Members who renewed in 2018 and for members from 2017!
Register here: https://bcfoodprotection.wildapricot.org/event-2774390

Sustaining Member Display Tables are available on first-come, first-serve basis. Interested in sponsoring? Contact Peter Taylor at info@bcfoodprotection.ca to sponsor our event or to reserve your table today! Our sponsorship package form will be distributed in the next few days for those interested in sponsoring our events.

We are accepting nominations to run in our 2018 Executive Board. If you are interested in volunteering, please talk to us in person or send us an email! We are always looking for volunteers!

Schedule:
5:00-5:30 PM    Registration
5:30-5:45 PM    Welcome Remarks & AGM Business
5:45-6:35 PM    Speaker: Dr. Peter Slade on "Food Safety Risk Intelligence"
6:35-7:20 PM    Dinner
7:20-7:30 PM    Scholarship Presentation & Awards
7:30-8:00 PM    Speaker: Justin Falardeau on "Microbial safety of surface waters used for irrigation in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia"
8:00-8:15 PM    Closing Remarks & Door Prizes

Speaker biography and topic description available - click here

The 2016 AGM Minutes and 2017 AGM Report will be made available for our members at the meeting or click here to view.

To streamline our communications process, we will have only ONE BCFPA email address for all future communications. If you wish to contact any of our executives, please send your emails to:
info@bcfoodprotection.ca and please add this to your address book for future reference! Thank you!

Wishing you all the joy and warmest wishes for this holiday season.

Sincerely,

The BC Food Protection Association Executive Board

2017 November FSMA Full Day Workshop
Introduction to FSMA: Preventive Controls for Human Food and What You Should Know

Featured FSMA Trainers:
Claudia Coles & Jovana Kovacevic

November 9, 2017

Langara Clubhouse
6706 Alberta Street, Vancouver, BC

Complimentary Parking Available

Visit our website to register and for more information www.bcfoodprotection.ca

Workshop Description & Speaker Bios: Click here

Register by Oct 26 to take advantage of our early bird rate!
Full Day Event: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Schedule:
8:30 – 9:00 AM    Registration
9:00 – 10:15 AM    Overview of FSMA - Jovana Kovacevic
10:15 - 10:30 AM Nutrition Break
10:30 - 11:30 AM Brief Introduction to Produce Safety Rule - Jovana Kovacevic
11:30 - 12:00 PM Agricultural Water in British Columbia: What do we test for and what do we know about the quality? - Justin Falardeau
12:00 - 1:00 PM    Lunch
1:00 - 1:30 PM    Introduction to Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule - Claudia Coles
1:30 - 2:45 PM    The Future of Food Safety and FSMA - Claudia Coles
2:45 - 3:00 PM    Nutrition Break
3:00 - 4:00 PM    What you should know about the Foreign Supplier Verification Program Rule - Claudia Coles
After 4:30 PM    Networking

Register today! Early bird registration ends October 26th.

https://bcfoodprotection.wildapricot.org/event-2689338

The Fall IAFP Affiliate View is out!

The IAFP invites you to review the latest edition of Affiliate View, IAFP’s newsletter for and about our 55 Affiliates around the world. Affiliate View dedicates itself to the professionals working to advance food safety in their geographical region. Each quarterly issue is a valuable source of information that includes a column from the current Affiliate Council Chair, summaries of recent Affiliate meetings, information about upcoming events, and news about IAFP programs and services.

https://www.foodprotection.org/upl/downloads/publications/affiliates-view/fall%202017.pdf

Join IAFP today - https://www.foodprotection.org/

We recognize it takes a combination of both hard work and educational funding for most students to achieve their goal of a post-secondary education. That's why we've developed a scholarship fund to help encourage student funding and interest in food protection in BC.

For 2017, two scholarships will be available in the amounts of $1500 and $1000 and will be awarded to two BCFPA student members who meet the criteria. Students selected to receive scholarship awards must attend a future BCFPA event to receive the Scholarship Award Certificate. It is intended that the 2017 Scholarship Awards will be presented at our Annual General Meeting in January 2018.

To be considered for the scholarship awards, please fill out the application form and email your application and essay to the BCFPA Vice President at justin.falardeau@ubc.ca . Applications must be submitted no later than November 30, 2017.

The Scholarship Poster is available here.

This year's topics:

1. Food Safety Within Sustainable Food Production
2. How FSMA may affect Canadian Food Production
3. Chemical Hazards in Agri-Food Products

Details of the scholarship criteria and requirements can be found under our Scholarship page here: http://www.bcfoodprotection.ca/Scholarships

Early bird registration for the 83rd CIPHI Annual Education Conference, including the Group Rate, will end on October 7, 2017. Do not miss this opportunity to explore innovative ways to safeguard public health with other environmental public health professionals in Canada. Check out our conference program here for details.

Early bird registrants will be automatically entered to win 1 of 10 CIPHI BC gift packs. Register today!

Poster

For conference registration, please follow the link below:
https://ciphi2017annualeducationconference.eventsmart.com/events/ciphi-2017-annual-education-conference/