Following is a message from CFIA.
Effective May 2, 2013, there will no longer be letters of exemption issued for products containing insignificant quantities of meat that fall under Meat Inspection Regulations 3.(1)(i) exemption. Existing CFIA letters of exemption will expire as of May 31, 2013 and will no longer be accepted.
Importers can use the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS) to check current Canadian import requirements. Depending on the nature of the product and its origin, they might require an attestation of the product’s composition, such as a declaration issued by the manufacturer or, where applicable, a self-declaration. These kinds of attestations from the importer will be reviewed as part of the regular import certificate processing performed by the National Import Service Centre (NISC). Note that products are assessed as presented at the border and no future processing or dilution steps are considered. For example, a soup concentrate with 8% meat or animal fat content that may previously have been exempt (because it would be further diluted to under 2% once made according to directions) is now considered to be a meat product.
The operator or importer is expected to meet all requirements under all CFIA regulations applicable to that product. These products may also be regulated by Health Canada through product-specific regulatory programs, which are administered under the authority of the Food and Drugs Act and Food and Drugs Regulations.
It is the responsibility of the prospective importer to be in compliance with any additional import requirements or restrictions associated with the importation of a commodity for human use. Before importing the product(s) into Canada any animal health restrictions must be complied with that are in place for the product in question.