A food safety programme for fruit and vegetable operations, with options that fit smaller businesses as well as large ones.
CanadaGAP is a food safety programme for companies that produce, pack, store and handle fruits and vegetables. It is owned and managed by CanAgPlus, a not-for-profit organisation, and it is built around commodity-specific manuals rather than one generic checklist.
Its distinguishing feature is the option structure. Rather than treating every operation the same, CanadaGAP offers different certification options with different levels of audit intensity, so a small operation is not put through the same process as a large multi-site business. Several of those options carry GFSI recognition.
It is most relevant to Canadian operations and to businesses supplying Canadian buyers, though the underlying practices — water, hygiene, sanitation, traceability — are the same ones every produce food safety programme examines.
Option names, manual coverage and which options hold GFSI recognition are maintained by CanAgPlus and can change. Confirm the current structure with CanadaGAP or your certification body before choosing an option.
You choose an option based on the size and complexity of your operation and on what your buyers require. The options differ in how often you are audited, whether the programme is certified or simply implemented, and whether GFSI recognition applies.
Working to the manual and keeping the records, without a certification audit. Suits operations whose buyers do not require a certificate yet.
A certified option with an audit frequency scaled to lower-risk, less complex businesses.
Yearly on-site audit — the option most buyers expect when they ask for a CanadaGAP certificate.
For businesses operating several sites or groups of producers under one management system.
CanadaGAP publishes manuals by commodity group, which is why the programme feels more directly applicable than a generic standard. The manual tells you what the requirement is and gives you the record templates to satisfy it.
Confirm which commodity manual and which option apply to your operation before you start building records.
Certification is delivered by licensed certification bodies. Options and audit frequency are agreed at registration.
Work to the manual through a full production cycle. The records are the audit; the practices are only visible through them.
Complete the programme's own self-assessment honestly and act on what it exposes before the auditor does.
Certification is maintained on the cycle set by your option, so keep records continuous rather than seasonal.
GAP APP is not a CanadaGAP-branded product and does not replace the programme manuals. It holds the same underlying evidence the manuals ask you to keep: water tests, sanitation, training, traceability, corrective actions and supplier documentation, dated and exportable.
If your operation also carries a U.S. GAP audit or a GFSI-recognized scheme, keeping that evidence once and mapping it to each programme is considerably less work than running parallel binders.
Water, sanitation, training and traceability evidence that serves CanadaGAP and every other programme you carry.
GAP APP provides audit-preparation tools and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or accredited by GFSI, Azzule Systems, SQFI, CanAgPlus, GLOBALG.A.P. or USDA. Certification decisions are made solely by accredited certification bodies and their auditors.