Building Confidence Across the Canadian Food Supply Chain
As food supply chains become increasingly global, organizations face growing challenges in maintaining consistent food safety expectations across suppliers, facilities, markets, and regulatory environments. Ingredients can originate in one country, be processed in another, and reach consumers through distribution networks that span multiple continents. In Canada, this complexity is shaped by domestic production, import and export activity, provincial distribution networks, and regulatory expectations under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR). In this environment, consistency matters. Organizations need common frameworks that help ensure food safety requirements are understood, implemented, and verified throughout the supply chain.
This is where GFSI-benchmarked standards can provide value by helping organizations create consistency, strengthen supplier assurance, and build confidence throughout the supply chain. For food manufacturers, processors, importers, exporters, retailers, and foodservice suppliers, these frameworks can also support audit readiness, conformance assessment, corrective actions, and stronger alignment with customer and regulatory expectations.
Why Harmonization Matters for Food Safety
Food companies operate in a highly interconnected marketplace. Suppliers may serve multiple customers across different countries, each with their own expectations for food safety management. Without a common approach, organizations can face duplicate audits, inconsistent requirements, increased complexity, and additional costs.
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) was created to help address these challenges by promoting harmonization and benchmarking food safety certification programs against a common set of requirements. The goal is simple: improve food safety while reducing unnecessary duplication throughout the supply chain.
For organizations operating across multiple regions or managing extensive supplier networks, harmonization helps improve communication, increase confidence, and support more consistent food safety practices. This can be especially valuable for organizations supplying national retailers, importing ingredients, or exporting finished products into global markets.
Canada’s food safety framework is supported by regulatory oversight from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), together with applicable provincial and territorial requirements. In this landscape, GFSI-benchmarked standards do not replace legal obligations, but they can help organizations strengthen management systems, supplier oversight, traceability, and continual improvement practices that support regulatory and customer confidence.
Speaking the Same Food Safety Language
Francesco Di Sarno highlighted an important challenge facing today’s food industry: global supply chains have increased the need for organizations to "speak the same language" when it comes to food safety. As sourcing becomes more international, common expectations and recognized frameworks become increasingly valuable.
GFSI-benchmarked certification schemes provide this common language. While individual programs have unique requirements and areas of emphasis, they all support a shared objective: demonstrating that effective food safety management systems are in place and operating effectively across the organization.
This common framework can make it easier for organizations, suppliers, retailers, and brand owners to work together while maintaining confidence in food safety performance throughout the supply chain. For Canadian businesses, it can also support clearer communication with domestic and international customers, particularly where supplier approval programs require evidence of recognized food safety certification, documented corrective actions, and ongoing audit readiness
Understanding GFSI-Benchmarked Standards
Several globally recognized food safety certification programs have been benchmarked by GFSI and are widely used throughout the food industry. These include standards such as:
- FSSC 22000
- BRCGS
- SQF
These certification schemes provide structured approaches to managing food safety risks, supporting continuous improvement, and demonstrating commitment to recognized industry practices.
While organizations often select the scheme most appropriate for their industry sector, customer requirements, or business needs, all of these frameworks contribute to greater consistency across the global food system. In Canada, these schemes are used across food manufacturing, food packaging, logistics and distribution, wholesale and trading, import and export, and supplier assurance activities. DNV Canada supports food safety management system certification and training for these sectors through its Food Safety Management Systems Certification services.
Beyond Compliance
Supplier management has become a critical component of food safety.
As organizations expand sourcing across multiple countries and regions, visibility into supplier performance becomes increasingly important. Effective supplier assurance programs help organizations evaluate risks, establish expectations, and maintain consistency throughout the supply chain.
Common certification frameworks can simplify communication and reduce uncertainty between organizations and their suppliers. When suppliers operate under recognized food safety management systems, organizations have greater confidence that fundamental food safety expectations are being addressed consistently.
This becomes particularly important as supply chains continue to expand and evolve. GFSI-benchmarked standards can help support supplier qualification, risk-based monitoring, conformance assessment, corrective action follow-up, and consistent documentation across supplier networks.
Supporting Supplier Assurance
Supplier management has become a critical component of food safety.
As organizations expand sourcing across multiple countries and regions, visibility into supplier performance becomes increasingly important. Effective supplier assurance programs help organizations evaluate risks, establish expectations, and maintain consistency throughout the supply chain.
Common certification frameworks can simplify communication and reduce uncertainty between organizations and their suppliers. When suppliers operate under recognized food safety management systems, organizations have greater confidence that fundamental food safety expectations are being addressed consistently.
This becomes particularly important as supply chains continue to expand and evolve. Canadian organizations may manage suppliers across provinces, the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and other global sourcing regions. GFSI-benchmarked standards can help support supplier qualification, risk-based monitoring, conformance assessment, corrective action follow-up, and consistent documentation across these networks.
For additional Canadian context on reducing audit complexity, see DNV’s related article: Bundling Food Safety Audits: A Smarter Path for Canadian Suppliers.
How Aligned Is Your Canadian Food Safety Program?
As organizations evaluate supplier oversight, food safety consistency, and supply chain resilience, understanding current readiness becomes increasingly important.
Take DNV's Food Safety Audit Readiness Assessment
The Industry Is Expanding the Conversation
While food safety remains the primary focus, industry discussions are increasingly incorporating topics such as food security, food loss and waste, sustainability, traceability, and supply chain resilience. Standards development continues to evolve as organizations seek to address emerging challenges across the broader food system.
Organizations are recognizing that long-term confidence in food systems depends on more than preventing food safety incidents. It also requires responsible management of resources, strong supplier relationships, transparency, and the ability to respond effectively to disruption.
As these expectations continue to grow, harmonized food safety frameworks provide a strong foundation on which organizations can build broader assurance and resilience strategies.
Looking Ahead
Global food supply chains are unlikely to become less complex. Consumer expectations, regulatory requirements, and stakeholder scrutiny will continue to increase. Organizations will need effective systems that support consistency, collaboration, and confidence across their operations and supply networks.
GFSI-benchmarked standards help organizations meet that challenge by providing a common framework for food safety management and supplier assurance. By creating a shared language across the food industry, these standards support stronger collaboration, improved consistency, and greater confidence throughout the value chain.
As the food industry continues to evolve, organizations that invest in robust food safety systems and supply chain alignment will be better positioned to navigate change and meet growing expectations. This means strengthening food safety culture, improving audit readiness, maintaining effective preventive controls, supporting traceability, and demonstrating conformance to recognized food safety and supplier assurance expectations.
Evaluate Your Readiness
How aligned is your organization with recognized food safety best practices?
Take DNV's Food Safety Audit Readiness Assessment to identify strengths, gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Continue Learning
Want to explore these topics in greater depth?
Watch DNV's OnDemand Food Safety Workshop
Source of Insights
This article incorporates key themes and insights from DNV's Food Safety Workshop presentation delivered by Francesco Di Sarno, Global Food & Beverage Business Development Manager, together with additional industry perspectives and content contributions from Kathleen Wybourn, Director, Food & Beverage US & Canada.
8/10/2026 4:15:00 p.m.
