April 22, 2009
Canadian gov't urges improvement on food safety standards
In view of last year's listeria outbreak that killed 21 people and sickened hundreds more, the Canadian government is urged to improve food safety practices in the food industry.
Last year's outbreak could have been avoided through better industry practices, stronger resources and regulations from the government, said Michael McCain, President and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, whose Toronto facility produced the listeria-tainted meat products.
New requirements adopted on April 1, will for the first time, require environmental monitoring in food plants.
McCain said stricter requirements to collect and properly analyse test results now adopted would help prevent potential causes of a listeria outbreak in food plants before it can contaminate food products.
Increased visual inspections are likely unhelpful because the bacteria cannot be seen without testing, McCain said.
McCain said the food industry does not take food safety seriously enough and that situation must improve by investing more in food safety so as to deliver safe products to consumers.
He stressed the importance of building better inspection and testing capabilities at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to validate and verify compliance.
Canadian food regulation must get tougher, with tough accountability for those who fail to meet regulatory requirements, he said.
Brian Evans, executive vice-president of the CFIA, said the agency's review of Maple Leaf's listeria-testing programme in the aftermath of the outbreak showed deficiencies. The review showed all samples of finished products tested by Maple Leaf during the first half of 2008 showed no listeria contamination but there were problems with the company's environmental testing paperwork that showed positive tests on a number of occasions between May and August.
As a result, Evans said the CFIA could not confirm if the company had followed all proper procedures to control hazards.
McCain assured that all procedures were followed, but Bob Kingston, head of the Agriculture Union that represents meat inspectors said such assurances aren't good enough and as a result more meat inspectors are needed.
