Quality Assurance
Identity Preservation and Traceability
Innovation


    

Resources



Seed Company Directory

If you’re interested in talking to a Canadian seed company about sourcing a particular certified seed variety or participating in an identity-preserved system, check out the membership directory on the Canadian Seed Trade Association website. This directory allows you to search CSTA members by province and crop type, and will provide contact info and a link to the company website.

You can also contact the CSGA office for more information.








The Certified Advantage

When you start with ingredients grown from Canadian Certified seed, you are building on a foundation of success. You know that the ingredients you're using are of the highest quality, bred in Canada and grown by producers who understand the critical importance of delivering a consistent product. That´s the Certified Advantage. 

The Canadian Seed Growers' Association, Canada's seed crop certification authority, welcomes food processors and end-users to this new section of their website – a resource to learn more about Canada's seed certification system and the benefits of ingredients made from Certified seed:





What is Canadian Certified seed?
Certified seed, labelled with an official Canada Certified Blue Tag, is produced by CSGA seed growers for sale to farmers to plant their commercial grain acreage. Not just any seed in Canada can be labelled with the Certified Blue Tag of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Canada has over 4,000 farms involved in seed production and each seed grower is required to follow stringent production requirements to ensure that quality standards are met right from the start.

Along the way, officially-recognized third-party inspectors in the Certified seed fields and processing plants ensure that all quality assurance requirements are met. This involves three main components:
  1. Varietal purity – All Certified seed crops must meet standards for parent seed pedigree, minimum isolation distances, land-use history, maximum levels of off-types or other varieties to maintain purity.

  2. Germination – Documented results from federally accredited seed labs confirm seed purity and germination of all Certified seed crops.

  3. Freedom from impurities – In the field, third-party inspectors verify proper isolation, that the crop was produced from a higher level progeny, and limits on volunteer crops, off-types, weeds and other crop kinds. In the processing plant, regular sampling by federally accredited graders verifies compliance with federal Seed Regulation standards for mechanical purity which includes weeds and other crop kinds.

In contrast, common seed is multiplied without any officially-recognized third-party inspections to confirm varietal purity or quality.

For Canada's farmers, planting Certified seed provides better quality grains and oilseeds, new marketing opportunities for their crop, risk management, and access to new varieties that are bred for success.

For food processors, using grains and oilseeds grown from Certified seed offers assurance that you are starting with the best ingredients available – and that is the foundation of quality foods. Explore more about how Certified seed gives you access to quality assurance, identity preservation and traceability, and innovation.