New CFIA database to verify feed and water additives approved for use in Canada

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently released an online database to allow anyone to look up feed and water additives to check if they’re approved for use in Canada.

Additives (e.g. vitamins, probiotics, essential oils, etc.) that are being used to impact the health or nutrition of the flock must be approved for use by either the CFIA or Health Canada.

This new website allows you to check for those products that are approved by the CFIA.

While this website lists products approved for use by CFIA, it should be noted that water additives can be registered differently depending on how they are being used and their product type. If water additives for the health or nutrition of the flock are not found in the new CFIA database, they could also be listed on the following databases:

• Health Canada’s Veterinary Health Product Database, or
• Health Canada’s Drug Product Database

The latest version of the CFC Raised by a Canadian Farmer On-Farm Food Safety Program manual included four helpful factsheets on product use, barn cleaning, feed mixing, and water cleaning. When it comes to product use on the farm such as feed and water additives, you must always verify that it is approved for use in agricultural facilities and will not negatively impact the safety of the chicken being produced.

The new online database from CFIA – in conjunction with the databases from Health Canada – makes it much easier to do this, with the ability to search by registration number, brand name, or feed (ingredient/additive) name.

While these databases include animal health products, they do not include information on all cleaners/sanitizers or pH modifiers. Although all of these products need to respect Canadian government requirements for labeling and safety, there is no government registration required. Some products may have a “Drug identification Number” – and therefore can be found on Health Canada’s Drug Product Database – but most will not. For these products, they must either be approved for use in food animal premises, have directions specific for use in chicken production or livestock barns, be listed on the Organic permitted substances list, or be used in conjunction with a veterinarian.