Why CFIA Is Suspending Licences Over Missing Preventive Control Plans

What is a Preventive Control Plan?

Under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR), most food businesses that manufacture, process, treat, preserve, grade, package, or label food are required to prepare, keep, maintain, and implement a written Preventive Control Plan (PCP).

A PCP must demonstrate how hazards to food are identified and prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level. It includes:

• ✓Hazard analysis -- biological, chemical, physical, and allergen hazards
• ✓Preventive controls -- CCPs (Critical Control Points) and other preventive measures
• ✓Monitoring procedures -- what you check, how often, and who is responsible
• ✓Corrective actions -- what happens when a control fails
• ✓Verification activities -- how you confirm your controls are working
• ✓Traceability procedures -- one step forward, one step back
• ✓Recall procedures -- how you would execute a recall

What happened: On December 8, 2025, CFIA suspended the Safe Food for Canadians licence of Aliments Halal Sano Inc. The company failed to comply with Parts 4 and 5 of the SFCR -- specifically, the identification and analysis of hazards, the development and implementation of a preventive control plan, and traceability requirements.

No food recall was issued -- the suspension was purely for missing compliance documentation. The company was given 90 days to implement corrective actions or face permanent licence cancellation. During the suspension, they cannot conduct any licensed food activities. Zero revenue.

The lesson: You don't need a contamination event to lose your licence. CFIA can shut you down for not having the paperwork -- the hazard analysis, the preventive controls, the traceability records.

What happened: Marini Foods had it worse -- not only was their licence suspended on July 31, 2025 for failing to implement a preventive control plan (SFCR sections 47(2) and 88), but they also had an active Salmonella contamination in their salami and cacciatore products.

The combination was devastating: product recalls, a food safety investigation, potential criminal liability, and a four-month shutdown until November 17, 2025. If they had maintained a proper PCP with hazard analysis, monitoring procedures, and activity logs, the contamination would likely have been caught during production -- not after products reached consumers.

What CFIA inspectors actually look for

CFIA is now reviewing all new, amended, and renewal licence applications to verify that hazards have been identified, a PCP is in place, and a food safety culture is demonstrated. During inspections, they check:

Enforcement is accelerating

CFIA is escalating enforcement with detention of product, licence suspension and cancellation, and Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) for regulatory violations. The era of warnings-only is over.

The cost of PCP compliance software

Standalone HACCP/PCP software like FoodDocs charges $84-250/month -- for just the compliance documentation. No labels, no production logging, no traceability, no batch costing.

NutriBoard's Producer plan ($59/month founding price) includes PCP with hazard analysis, preventive controls, CFIA templates, daily activity logs, plus nutrition labels, production logging, full traceability, and batch costing. It's the only platform that combines all four in one tool.

Sources

• CFIA -- Suspension of Aliments Halal Sano Inc. SFC Licence (December 2025)
• CFIA -- Suspension of Marini Foods Ltd. SFC Licence (July 2025)
• CFIA -- Regulatory Requirements: Preventive Controls for Food Businesses
• CFIA -- 2024-2025 Departmental Results Report
• CFIA -- Full List of Licence Suspensions and Cancellations