June 11, 2009
No new inspectors for Canadian meat plants
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has hired 57 new inspectors, but none are dedicated to meat inspection, despite last year's listeriosis crisis Canada had suffered.
At the height of the listeriosis crisis last year, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz promised they'd be on the "front lines".
But the CFIA said some of the new hires are working on the implementation of Product of Canada labelling guidelines, while others are conducting border checks for "high-risk commodities".
Others are sampling and testing high-risk foods, completing laboratory method validation studies for high-risk commodities or designing an enhanced identification system for food manufacturers.
Food safety critic Malcolm Allen expressed his disappointment, saying Ritz left the impression that all the new hires were meat inspectors but now it's known that they weren't.
