Canadian Food Microbiological Testing Results for 2020-2021

National Microbiological Monitoring Program data verifies industry compliance with microbial standards for imported and domestic food products. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency manages this surveillance program, which samples products at importers, federally registered facilities, and retail. This release covers the 2020/2021 period.

Use Cases

• Classify product safety status based on microbiological test results and sampling location (e.g., retail, importer).
• Analyze contamination rates for specific food product categories to identify high-risk sectors.
• Predict regulatory compliance outcomes using features like product origin (imported/domestic) and facility type.
• Model temporal trends in foodborne pathogen detection across the 2020/2021 monitoring period.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative Canadian Food Inspection Agency, a national regulatory body.
• Covers a broad range of food products from multiple sampling points (import, federal facilities, retail).
• Explicitly collected for verifying compliance with international and domestic food safety standards.

Limitations

• Specific data volume (row count) and granularity of columns (e.g., specific pathogens, product names) are unknown.
• Limited to a single annual cycle (2020/2021), restricting longitudinal trend analysis.
• Potential geographic bias as data focuses on Canadian import and domestic supply, with unknown international representativeness.

Provenance

Source

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)

Collection Method

Samples collected from importers, federally registered facilities, and retail locations, then tested in CFIA laboratories.

Time Range

2020/2021

Freshness

Dataset metadata was last updated in April 2026, but the underlying data covers the 2020/2021 period.

Geography

Canada (domestic and imported products)