On-Farm Food Safety
Interested in attending or hosting a workshop on the Goat On-Farm Food Safety (GOFFS) Program? The GOFFS program training is delivered by a province or provincial goat association. Prior to arranging a workshop in your area, please consult with CNGF in advance to ensure that the instructor you are considering is considered qualified to deliver this training. If the instructor is pre-approved by CNGF, workshop attendees will be issued a certificate upon completion of the workshop.
Welcome to the on-farm food safety section of this website! The Goat On-Farm Food Safety (GOFFS) program has been developed by the CNGF to provide producers with the tools and resources to demonstrate that the food we are producing is safe.
The program examines all areas of production and outlines good production practices (GPPs) that are designed to minimize food safety risks and produce a safe, high-quality product. The program was created based on a HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, pronounced “haa-sip”) approach, a management system both nationally and internationally recognized in the agriculture and agri-food industries as a means to identify food safety risks during production and control measures to reduce those risks. HACCP is simply a systematic approach using both science and simple common sense to identify and prevent hazards.
In using HACCP to create a program that is easily adapted to any goat farm, there are three types of hazards recognized:
- Physical (e.g. broken needles)
- Biological (e.g. E. coli, salmonella)
- Chemical (e.g. antibiotic residues)
The GOFFS Program provides GPPs that can be used on any farm to reduce the risk of food safety hazards. Within the program, some GPPs are labelled as Critical Control Points (CCPs), using a goat head logo. A CCP is a point, step or procedure where loss of control may result in a food safety hazard, and where control can be applied to prevent, eliminate or reduce the hazard to an acceptable level.
For example, a critical control point almost every producer will encounter is following drug withdrawal times on animal health products to ensure animals are shipped to slaughter free of potentially harmful residues. This is just one example of a precautionary step producers are already doing as part of the food supply chain.
The GOFFS program provides goat producers with the opportunity to access markets that might otherwise be closed without the assurances offered by such a program, and demonstrates to consumers that producers have exercised due diligence during production. The Program is an excellent way to further the goat industry and invest in your business as a producer.
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The Producer Manual has been reviewed and accepted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) as a credible, national on-farm food safety program for the goat industry. It is your guidebook to the GOFFS program. It includes information on all GPPs, CCPs, record keeping forms, and other information that will be helpful to producers implementing the program. The complete manual and program record forms are available, please click the link below or email CNGF at info@cangoats.com for your free copy!
Click here to download a free copy of the GOFFS Manual (PDF)
This project was made possible by funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) through its Canadian Industry Traceability Infrastructure Program (CITIP). AAFC is pleased to participate in this project and is committed to working with its industry partners to increase public awareness of the importance of the agri-food industry to Canada.
