Start Clean – Stay Clean®

egg candling

Start Clean – Stay Clean®, the Canadian egg industry’s food safety program, helps ensure that all eggs produced are safe, fresh and of the highest quality.  Based on the latest researched, developed by experts and assessed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, SC-SC™ is regularly reviewed and revised to reflect new knowledge and egg farmers’ commitment to continuous improvement.

SC-SC™ provides guidelines for the production, storage and distribution of eggs.  On-farm compliance is verified through extensive record keeping and annual inspections by a trained team of field inspectors.

Start Clean – Stay Clean® layer program requirements include:

  • Scoring at least 90% on the Part 1 and Part 2 audits
  • Scoring 100% on the Part 3 audit
  • Scoring 100% for critical control points
  • Observing a 7-day downtime between flock depopulation and placement
  • Completing a wet clean during flock change
  • Having 100% of records in place

If any farmer does not achieve the SC-SC™ scoring requirements a Corrective Action Request (CAR) will be issued immediately.  Depending on the nature of the CAR, farmers have 7 days to resolve the issue, which is followed by a re-audit on the areas of non-conformance.  Failure to do so will result in fines and can potentially lead to having the farmer’s license to produce eggs revoked.

Did you know? The Start Clean – Stay Clean average score was 99.81% in 2021, 99.89% in 2022, and increased to 99.91% in 2023!