Canadian Meat Council

The Canadian Meat Council, known in French as Conseil des Viandes du Canada and operating bilingually under the abbreviation CMC, is the national trade association representing Canada's federally inspected meat packing and processing industry, founded in 1919 and headquartered in Ottawa. The organization represents meat processing companies that operate establishments registered with and inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency under the Safe Food for Canadians Act, processing beef, pork, poultry, and other livestock into cuts, ground products, sausages, bacon, hams, and other value-added meat products for domestic retail and foodservice markets and for international export. Member companies include major processors such as Maple Leaf Foods, Cargill Meat Solutions Canada, Olymel, HyLife Foods, and Conestoga Meat Packers, along with dozens of smaller regional processors. The council advocates on federal policy matters including Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspection fee structures, temporary foreign worker program access for meat plant labor, international trade negotiations affecting meat export market access to markets including China, Japan, and the European Union, and front-of-package nutrition labeling requirements for processed meat products.