Industry welcomes the new rules as a way to establish trust in its products.Ottawa – New food safety rules for fruits and vegetables have come into force and organizations representing the sector are welcoming them.Ron Lemaire, President of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA), said the new rules are “more than food safety regulations; they enable Canadians to trust that the food they are eating is safe, while also supporting the growth of our industry by creating internationally-recognized standards for safe food production.”Rebecca Lee, Executive Director of the Canadian Horticultural Council, said that overall her members, who represent growers, are overall satisfied with the regulations. Last fall, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) agreed to accept existing labelling on growing region rather than forcing the industry to add lot codes to the packaging to convey that information.During the long trek to bring the food safety rules to fruition, “CHC has been working diligently with our partners to ensure that Canadian growers are aware of the new regulations and that they understand how these regulations may impact their business,” she said.The new rules are part of the Safe Food for Canadians Act passed in October 2012 and were prepared during years of consultations with the agrifood sector and other groups.Lemaire said the regulations were “developed in a collaborative manner, allowing for industry feedback throughout and enabling the development of provisions in the regulations that relate to the fresh fruit and vegetable sector. These provisions are essential to the industry's growth and prosperity.”The regulations cover most businesses in the fresh fruits or vegetables sector that import, export or engage in interprovincial trade, the CFIA said. They focus on prevention of food safety threats and allow for faster removal of unsafe food from the marketplace. They require businesses to maintain preventive controls that address food safety hazards such as microbiological contamination to food and that help to prevent contaminated and non-compliant food from entering the marketplace.They require written preventive control plans that document the risks to food and how these risks are being controlled and provide for traceability documentation to track the movement of food one step forward and one step back in the supply chain.Lee said CHC worked closely with CFIA and the rest of the industry in making sure the rules were consistent and in keeping members aware of the progress on the rules. CFIA's decision on growing region “recognized the complexity of lot code inclusion on consumer prepackaged products and addressed industry concerns with compliance.”The grower perspective will now be included in CFIA's regulatory frameworks, which will help “ensure that Canadians have access to safe and healthy fruits and vegetable while also supporting the competitiveness of our sector.”Lemaire said, “CPMA fully supports the government's commitment to protect Canadians and reduce the risk of exposure to foodborne illnesses by establishing and maintaining a safe national food system.”Companies importing fruits and vegetables now require a Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licence or face delays or rejection of their shipment at the border, and may be subject to other enforcement actions.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.