A-20.03, r. 1 - Regulation respecting reserved designations

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Replaced on 5 August 2010
This document has official status.
chapter A-20.03, r. 1
Regulation respecting reserved designations
Act respecting reserved designations and added-value claims
(chapter A-20.03, s. 57).
Replaced, M.O. 2010-07-05; 2010 G.O. 2, 2262; eff. 2010-08-05; see chapter A-20.03, r. 2.
1. The designation of an agricultural or food product may be recognized by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food only where the following criteria and requirements are met:
(1)  in the case of a designation attributed to a product as an attestation of an organic method of production, the product must comply with a specification manual whose standards are at least as stringent as those set forth in the Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods, adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme;
(2)  in the case of a designation attributed to a product as an attestation of its region of origin, the product must bear the name of the region used to identify it, and,
— in the case of a designation of origin, the quality and features of the product must derive essentially or exclusively from its geographical site, comprising natural and human aspects, and the product must be developed, processed and produced within the region identified by the designation;
— in the case of a protected geographical indication, the product must be of predetermined quality, must have a reputation or must have some other feature attributable to its geographical origin, and it must be developed, processed or produced within the region identified by the designation; and
(3)  in the case of a designation attributed to a product as an attestation of its specificity, one or more aspects of the product must clearly distinguish it from similar products in the same class.
“Designation” means the identification of a product which, by virtue of its specific features or method of production, distinguishes it from other products in the same class.
M.O. 1997, s. 1.
2. The following documents and information shall be submitted with an application for recognition of a designation:
— general information about the body applying for recognition and its internal statutes and by-laws;
— the scope of the designation to be reserved and a list of the certifiable products;
— a list of the documents, with an indication of the correspondence between each part and the ISO/IEC Guide 65;
— the role and term of office of the board of directors, and a list of its members and the interests they represent, as well as the role and term of office of each committee and a list of the committee members;
— the organization chart of the body applying for recognition;
— the rules of procedure for each committee;
— financial data;
— the inspection plan;
— a list and description of the subcontractors, and the nature of the subcontracting work;
— the quality policy of the body applying for recognition; and
— a description of the product bearing the designation, the features that distinguish it from similar products, the advantages of a specific type of production, the economic data related to that production, the distribution network, potential problems with respect to product imitation or forgery, as well as the economic prospects.
A specification manual shall also be submitted with an application for recognition of a designation. The manual shall comprise,
(1)  in the case of a designation of organic production, the standards provided for in subparagraph 1 of the first paragraph of section 1;
(2)  in the case of a designation of the region of origin,
(a)  the name of the agricultural or food product, containing the designation of origin or the geographical indication;
(b)  a description of the agricultural or food product, including any raw materials used, as well as the major physical, chemical, microbiological and organoleptic features of the product;
(c)  the delimitation of the geographical area;
(d)  the facts mentioned in paragraph 2 of section 1 proving that the agricultural or food product originates in that geographical area;
(e)  a description of the method by which the agricultural or food product is obtained, and any fair, consistently used local methods;
(f)  the facts mentioned in paragraph 2 of section 1 proving an association with the geographical site or with the geographical origin;
(g)  references in respect of the supervisory structure; and
(h)  specific labelling elements related to the words “designation of origin” or “protected geographical indication”, as the case may be, or to the equivalent wording traditionally used in Québec; and
(3)  in the case of an attestation of specificity,
(a)  the name, whether it is specific in and of itself or indicates the specificity of the agricultural or food product;
(b)  a description of the method of production, including the nature and characteristics of the raw material and ingredients used, as well as of the method used to develop the agricultural or food product, in reference to its specificity;
(c)  facts making it possible to determine in what respect it is a traditional product, either because it is produced from traditional raw materials, is of traditional composition or is produced or processed according to traditional methods;
(d)  a description of the features of the agricultural or food product, providing an indication of the major physical, chemical, microbiological and organoleptic features that determine its specificity; and
(e)  the minimum requirements and the inspection procedures, in reference to specificity.
M.O. 1997, s. 2.
3. Certification bodies may be members of an accreditation board, as may the representatives of producers, processors, professional orders, consumers and traders, as well as any group specifically concerned by a given designation.
An accreditation board shall be administered by a board of directors composed of not more than 7 members of whom 5 must represent respectively the following sectors:
1 representative for certification bodies;
1 representative for producers;
1 representative for traders;
1 representative for processors; and
1 representative for consumers.
The other 2 members must represent, according to the needs of the accreditation board, sectors other than those mentioned above.
The Minister shall appoint an observer to the accreditation board and to the board of directors of an accreditation board.
M.O. 1997, s. 3.
4. The criteria and requirements contained in the reference manual of an accreditation board and with which the assessment procedures of certification bodies applying for accreditation must comply are those set forth in
— ISO/IEC Guide 65: General Requirements for Bodies Operating Product Certification Systems;
— ISO/IEC Guide 61: General Requirements for Assessment and Accreditation of Certification/Registration Bodies; and
— ISO/IEC Guide 39: General Requirements for the Acceptance of Inspection Bodies.
(ISO/IEC guides are available from the International Organization for Standardization, Postal Box 56, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.)
M.O. 1997, s. 4.
5. Notwithstanding subparagraph 1 of the first paragraph of section 1, pending adoption of the Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods, to obtain recognition of a designation attributed as an attestation of an organic method of production, a product must comply with a specification manual whose standards are at least as stringent as those set forth in the Basic Standards of Organic Agriculture and Food Processing of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).
(Those standards are available from IFOAM General Secretariat, Ökozentrum Imsbach D-66636, Tholey-Theley, Germany.)
M.O. 1997, s. 5.
6. (Omitted).
M.O. 1997, s. 6.
REFERENCES
M.O. 1997, 1997 G.O. 2, 5043