Consumer Group Gives Canada’s Food Safety Regulations a D-
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Consumer groups and activists are calling for Canada to tighten up its food safety regulations and deal with underlying issues to its food safety infrastructure that is making its response to safety issues cumbersome and inefficient.
Food safety has been a hot-button issue since 2008’s Listeria outbreak killed 22 Canadians – most of them elderly. A report issued by the Weatherill firm called for 57 reforms to the current regulations as implemented by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The federal government will be investing an additional $75 million to help implement further food safety measures, while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will be hiring an additional 70 meat inspectors over a period of three years, in order to offset outbreaks like the one triggered by Maple Leaf Food products.
However, Option Consommateurs, Canada’s largest consumer group, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union that represents Canada’s meat inspectors are satisfied with the upcoming changes. They say that the reforms are not happening quickly enough and that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is not adequately funded to make all the changes at once, and in a timely fashion.
The Food Inspection Agency, on the other hand, says that huge investments have been made in order to ensure Canada’s food safety, and that a report card issued by Option Consommateur and the Public Service Alliance of Canada – in which they gave Canada a D- for its food safety measures, does not credit improvements made by the agency since the Listeria outbreak of 2008. CFIA’s executive vice-president, Bob Evans, believes that Canada’s food safety regulations are right on track: “I believe the Canadian food system and food safety system is as good as any system that exists anywhere in the world.”
Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz also feels that Canada’s government is taking the issue of food safety seriously, stating that the government “responded quickly and concretely” to the Listeria crisis.
The consumer group and meat inspectors’ union say that Canada’s system is fragmented with regional structures and has problems that are built right into the system’s infrastructure. Sporadic illnesses are passing under the radar, while the country needs to utilize more effective surveillance.
