July 18, 2008

 

Canada's food safety agency to relax mad cow disease checking

 
 

Canada's government will pass more responsibility for food inspections to the meat companies and reduce tests for mad cow disease so as to concentrate efforts at high-risk plants, the president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA) said.

 

CCA president Brad Wildeman said the new changes would not change the risk to human health as slaughterhouses are already required to remove specified risk materials (SRM)

 

The removal of the specified risk materials from any feed source for any animal for any purpose also removes any risk of transmission to animals.

 

Freeman Libby of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday that the federal government may change a program brought in during the mad cow crisis in 2003 that pays producers $75 to identify every head of cattle suspected of having bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

 

Since then Canada has brought in SRM removal rules and a feed ban that meet or exceed international animal health guidelines.

 

A more efficient testing protocol that would target only high-risk cattle is being considered, he said.

 

Libby said the CFIA has begun the process of making federally regulated meat plants take more responsibility for food safety.

 

Under the changes to be in effect by the fall, the food inspection agency would check paper work and conduct inspections to ensure that companies are complying with the rules, he said.

 

Making the industry responsible for some aspects of food safety can work with proper monitoring and supervision by the CFIA, he said.

 

Libby noted that Canada's processing industry is in big trouble compared to costs within the U.S. This is a way of trying to get more efficiency in the system, he said.

 

Starting next April, Washington plans to bring in less comprehensive and less expensive feed ban rules for American producers.

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