Most food importers entering Canada are required to hold a valid Safe Food for Canadians license (SFC license) issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Background
Since March 15, 2021, the CFIA has been using the Integrated Import Declaration (IID) to automatically verify that importers of the following commodities have a valid Safe Food for Canadians license (SFC license):
- dairy
- egg
- fish and seafood
- fresh fruits and vegetables
- honey and honey products
- maple and maple products
- meat and poultry products
- processed fruits and vegetables
Updates of SFC licence in 2024
Effective February 12, 2024, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will implement automatic verification procedures for Safe Food for Canadians licences (SFC licences) affecting importers of manufactured foods.
All import transactions involving food will be automatically rejected, unless a valid SFC licence number is declared. This means that if you import any food commodity that requires a licence, including manufactured foods, you must hold a valid SFC licence and declare it correctly in your import declaration, or your transaction will be rejected.
Importers and their brokers (Frontier) will promptly receive reject messages, leading to the denial of entry for the food shipment until the transaction is correctly resubmitted.
- active (not expired, surrendered, suspended or cancelled)
- issued for the activity “Importing Food”
- issued for the commodities that are being imported