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Improved Food Inspection Model
Final Model

Annex G: Glossary of terms

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This glossary of terminology is designed to standardize the language used by the CFIA's Food Business Line and support consistent interpretation of terminology used in the food inspection program.

A

Applicant (Demandeur)
Any person who applies for a licence, exemption or certificate.

B

Biological hazard (Danger biologique)
Any illness- or disease-causing pathogens or micro-organisms that pose a danger to food safety.

C

Certification (Certification)
Written assurance from a competent authority that foods or preventive control systems conform to requirements.
Chemical hazard (Danger chimique)
A chemical substance that poses a danger to food safety.
Compliant food (aliment conforme)
Food commodities that meet food safety and other regulatory requirements.
Competent authority (Instances compétentes)
A government agency or department having jurisdiction to perform a regulatory or enforcement function or both.
Contaminant (Contaminant)
Any biological, physical, chemical agents or other substances that are present in food and that compromise food safety or suitability.
Contamination (Contamination)
The presence of any contaminant in food or food contact surfaces.
Control measure (Mesure de contrôle)
Any action or activity that can be used to preventFootnote 18 or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level. (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System and Guidelines for Its Application, Annex to CAC/RCP 1-1969 (Rev.4 – 2003), FAO/CODEX)
Corrective action (Mesure corrective)
The steps that a regulated party takes to address non-compliance, which can include controlling affected product, conducting root cause analysis and preventing recurrence.
Corrective action request (CAR) (Demande de mesure corrective [DMC])
A document that the CFIA issues to a regulated party in cases of serious or critical non-compliance. The corrective action request describes the non-compliance and requires the licence holder to take corrective actions.
Critical non-compliance (Non-conformité critique)
Repeated serious non-compliance or non-compliance that has an immediate impact on food safety.
Cross-contamination (Contamination croisée)
A situation that occurs when hazards that are carried by utensils, equipment, surfaces or food handlers are transferred from one food, ingredient or surface to another.

D

Distributor (Distributeur)
A person, including a wholesaler, who distributes food or other materials.
Distribution centre (Centre de distribution)
A warehouse or other specialized building that is stocked with food or things to be redistributed to retailers, wholesalers or directly to consumers.

E

Employee (Employé)
A person who is employed by a food operation or establishment.
Establishment (Établissement)
Any place, including a conveyance, where a food commodity is manufactured, prepared, stored, packaged or labelled. (Safe Food for Canadians Act)
Exporter (Exportateur)
Any person who sells or trades food from Canada to another country.
Exposure assessment (Évaluation de l'exposition)
The qualitative and/or quantitative evaluation of the likely intake of biological, chemical and physical agents via food as well as exposures from other sources if relevant (Codex)

F

Food grade materials (Matériaux de qualité alimentaire)
A designation that means that a material is safe for human consumption, is permitted to come in contact with food contact surfaces or is food intended for human consumption.

I

Importer (Importateur)
Any person in Canada who imports food commodities into Canada.
Ingredient (Ingrédient)
An individual unit of food that is combined as an individual unit of food with one or more other individual units of food to form an integral unit of food that is sold as a prepackaged product (Food and Drug Regulations)

M

Monitoring (Suivi)
The act of conducting a planned sequence of observations or measurements of control parameters to assess whether a control measure is under control. (Codex)

N

Non-compliance (Non-conformité)
The state that occurs when a regulated party or thing does not conform to statutory or regulatory requirements.
Not ready-to-eat food (Aliment qui n'est pas du prêt-à-manger)
Foods that require a cooking step before consumption by consumers for safety. The cooking step is required to kill pathogenic micro-organisms that may be present in the food.

O

Objective evidence (Preuve objective)
Information directly collected by an inspector through observation, measurement, testing or other means.
Oversight (Surveillance des parties réglementées)
Inspection activities designed to determine whether a regulated party is complying with Acts and regulations administered or enforced by the CFIA

P

Pests (Organismes nuisibles/parasites)
Any animal, plant, fish or insect of public health importance including, but not limited to, birds, rodents, roaches, flies and larvae that may carry pathogens that can contaminate foods.
Physical hazard (Danger physique)
Any foreign materials that are not normally found in food and that pose a danger to food safety.
Premises (Lieux)
The lands, buildings and facilities where food is prepared.
Prepare (Conditionnement)
In respect of a food commodity, includes to process, treat, preserve, handle, test, grade, code or slaughter it or to do any other activity in respect of it that is prescribed.
Preventive control plan (Plan de contrôle préventif)
A combination of control measuresFootnote 19 that, when taken as a whole, provide for a science-based approach to managing risks posed by hazards.
Primary producer (Producteur primaire)
A person who cultivates, grows, produces, raises, picks or harvests agricultural products or fishery products and does not alter the nature of the raw product.

R

Ready-to-eat food (aliment prêt-à-manger)
  1. do not require any further preparation before consumption, except perhaps washing/rinsing, thawing or warming for aesthetics or palatability
  2. are in a form that is edible without additional preparation to achieve food safety
  3. do not require further preparation or cooking before consumption
  4. are ordinarily consumed in the same state as that in which they are sold
 
Regulated party (Partie réglementée)
A person (including an individual, corporation, partnership or organization) carrying on business in Canada who is subject to the Acts and regulations administered by the CFIA.
Representative sample (Échantillon représentatif)
The collection of a selected portion or subset of the thing that is intended to provide information on a given characteristic and that accurately reflects the characteristics of that thing.
Requirements (Exigences)
The criteria set down in acts or regulations administered or enforced by the CFIA.
Risk (Risque)
A function of the probability of an adverse health effect and the severity of that effect, consequential to a hazard(s) in food.
(CODEX Procedural Manual, 20th Edition, FAO, 2011)
Risk-based inspection (Inspection fondée sur le risque)
A method for using risk to prioritize and manage inspection efforts.
Risk characterization (Caractérisation des risques)
The qualitative and/or quantitative estimation, including attendant uncertainties, of the probability of occurrence and severity of known or potential adverse health effects in a given population based on hazard identification, hazard characterization and exposure assessment (CODEX)

S

Serious non-compliance (Non-conformité grave)
Non-compliance that has a potential impact on food safety.
Surveillance (Surveillance)
The collection, analysis and interpretation of food sampling and inspection information to establish baseline data or identify trends.
Systems-based approach (Approche axée sur un système)
An integrated, flexible, multi-faceted approach to analysing and managing risk that considers the underlying actions of all of the steps or processes and controls that make up food production.

T

Third-party verification (Vérification par une tierce partie)
The use of a private, independent service provider, organization or company to verify that a regulated party has adhered to a standard.

V

Validation (Validation)
Obtaining evidence that a control measure or combination of control measures, if properly implemented, is capable of controlling the hazard to a specified outcome. (CODEX, Guidelines for validation of food safety control measures, CAC/GL 69-2008)
Verification (Vérification)
The application of methods, procedures, tests and other evaluations, in addition to monitoring, to determine whether the control measure is or has been operating as intended. (CODEX, Guidelines for validation of food safety control measures, CAC/GL 69-2008)
Violation
(Infraction)
Any contravention of the acts or regulations administered or enforced by the CFIA or any refusal or neglect to perform any duty imposed by or under the acts or regulations

Additional resources

Codex Alimentarius Commission

Department of Justice, Food and Drug Regulations, C.R.C, c. 870

Health Canada, Food Directorate, Food-related health risk assessment

Risk-based Inspection as part of an Overall Inspection Management Program

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