The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Canada's largest science-based regulator, has published annual national testing and monitoring program results, confirming very high rates of compliance with Canadian food safety standards.
Through ongoing testing of foods sold in Canada--whether produced domestically or imported--the CFIA helps verify that food meets strict Canadian safety standards, while identifying potential areas of future food safety risks. This work also supports Canada's reputation as a trusted trading partner around the world.
The CFIA published annual reports for three ongoing monitoring programs that focus on microbiological and chemical residue risks, including one specifically for children's food. These reports summarize results from tens of thousands of tests conducted on foods found in grocery stores, food production facilities, and imported shipments across Canada. The reports also describe follow-up actions taken by the CFIA when issues were identified. The full datasets and data summaries are available on the Government of Canada's Open Data portal.
- National Microbiological Monitoring Program Annual Report, 2024-25: shows 12,641 tests were performed on 5,305 domestic and imported food products. Results indicated that domestic products were 99% satisfactory and imported products were 98.9% satisfactory. In addition, there were 1,735 tests performed on 1,496 environmental samples, which were assessed as 97.8% satisfactory and required no further action by the Agency.
- National Chemical Residue Monitoring Program Annual Report, 2022-23: shows that over 110,000 tests for residues of veterinary drugs, pesticides, metals, mycotoxins, and contaminants were performed on approximately 15,500 samples of dairy, fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, honey, eggs, meat, maple products and fish and seafood. Testing showed 97.5% of samples were compliant with Canadian standards.
- Children's Food Project, 2023: shows that a total of 105 samples of infant and young children's pureed foods were obtained for testing. All samples tested for pesticides were found to be compliant with Canadian standards.
Where non-compliant samples were found, the CFIA has several follow up actions they can use. Follow–up actions vary according to the level of health risk. These actions can include notifying the producer or importer, notifying the foreign food safety authority, conducting follow-up inspections, conducting further directed sampling, or recalling products. The information taken from these reports, as well as the CFIA's Targeted Surveillance Program, allows CFIA to identify trends that in turn help focus efforts in the areas of greatest health risk for Canadians.
By continuing to monitor and address food safety risks, the CFIA helps protect the health of Canadians, maintain confidence in Canada's food system, and support domestic and international trade.
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