Recently, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has announced the intent to re-implement additional import requirements for romaine lettuce.

This is a courtesy notice to inform you that as of September 30, 2021, until December 31, 2021, the CFIA will be reinstating sampling and testing requirements for romaine lettuce and products containing romaine lettuce.  

Please see the CFIA message titled “Update on the fall 2021 import requirements for romaine lettuce from the United States”. Following is a recap of the new requirements.

Affected Commodities: Shipments of fresh romaine lettuce and salad mixes containing romaine, sold in bags, bulk or combined with other foods, which originate in the US.

The expected import requirements are:

Romaine and products containing romaine from Salinas Valley of California:

• Proof the product does not contain detectable levels of E.Coli
• Sampling and testing procedures
  

Romaine and products containing romaine all other areas of the United States:

• Proof of Origin that the romaine does not originate in the Salinas Valley
  

This information about these requirements is distributed by the CFIA through your MyCFIA portal.  We recommend checking your portal frequently for additional detailed information and licence conditions disturbed by the CFIA.

These requirements are in addition to the standard import requirements for vegetables and leafy greens.  Existing Import Requirements for all Leafy Greens are:

• The Importer must have a valid Safe Foods for Canadians (SFC)  Licence for importing produce.
• The Importer must have a Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC) membership or be exempt.
• Romaine (and other leafy greens) from California must be handled by a member of the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA)
• Romaine  (and other leafy greens) from Arizona must be handled by a member of the Arizona Leafy Green Marking Agreement (LGMA)

We will continue to update you as more information becomes available from the CFIA.

As a valued client of PCB, you receive the benefit of our proactive release process which will ensure your imports are declared with the additional requirements listed above:

1. Upon receipt, our release team ensures all necessary documents that are required for import, are included.
2. If they are missing we will reach out to you, your carrier or your vendor to obtain this paperwork (additional fee may apply).