Preventive control plans (PCP)

What is a preventive control plan?

A preventive control plan (PCP) is a written document that shows how the hazards and risks to your food are identified and controlled. It's required by the SFCR for many licence holders, and it covers food safety along with packaging, labelling, standards of identity and grades.

Source: CFIA: Regulatory requirements, preventive control plan (opens in a new tab)

Who needs a written PCP?

Generally, SFC licence holders who make, process, package or label food for interprovincial trade or export, who import food, or who grow or harvest fresh fruit or vegetables for interprovincial trade or export. Some small businesses are exempt from the written plan.

Source: CFIA: Regulatory requirements, preventive control plan (opens in a new tab)

Do small businesses need a written PCP?

Some don't. CFIA allows an exception for some businesses with $100,000 or less in gross annual food sales. It doesn't apply to certain foods, including meat, fish, dairy, eggs, processed egg products and processed fruit or vegetable products, or if you need an export certificate. You still have to meet the preventive control requirements.

Source: CFIA: Preventive control plan exception for small food businesses (opens in a new tab)

What is considered a preventive control?

Any measure that prevents, eliminates or reduces a hazard to an acceptable level. That includes critical control points such as cooking, and the everyday programs behind them: sanitation, pest control, allergen control, maintenance, employee hygiene and training, and supplier controls.

Source: CFIA: Regulatory requirements, preventive control plan (opens in a new tab)

What does a PCP have to include?

In short:

• A hazard analysis with the control measures for each hazard and evidence that they work.
• Critical control points where they're needed, with critical limits, monitoring and corrective actions.
• Verification that the plan is implemented and effective.
• Measures for truthful labelling and packaging, and for standards of identity and grades.
• For importers, evidence that the food was made under controls that meet Canadian requirements.
• Records, kept for two years.

Source: CFIA: Regulatory requirements, preventive control plan (opens in a new tab)

Is there a PCP template I can use?

CFIA publishes guidance and sample templates, and they're a good way to see the structure. A template can't do the hazard analysis for you, though: the plan has to describe your own products, process and suppliers, and an inspector will compare it with what actually happens.

Have a PCP built for your site

Is a HACCP plan mandatory in Canada?

Not for every business. Many SFC licence holders need a written PCP, which uses the same hazard-analysis logic as HACCP. Some provinces require HACCP-based programs for certain sectors, and most certification schemes and large customers expect a HACCP-based plan.

HACCP questions