Long-Standing Problems Threaten Canada’s Food Safety, Experts Warn

Canadian food officials are still dealing with a deadly outbreak of listeriosis that has been linked to 19 deaths in the country, but a new report says officials have known there were serious problems in the inspection system that could threaten public safety for three years.

According to an article on the CBC website, the report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency actually came out in 2005, and documented problems with some of the CFIA’s food inspection procedures, including delays in issuing public warnings about potentially dangerous food products and a lack of followup after problems.

“The safety of food in Canada is somewhat unpredictable,” Rick Holley, professor of food microbiology and food safety in the department of food science at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, told the CBC. “There should be a reasonable level of confidence that the food that we eat is not going to make us sick.”

The article also said there was “no clear policy on when a recall requires public warning,” that there was no “common understanding of what is meant by recall followup,” and that “processes and strategies do not appear to be in place for systematically dealing with repeat [recall] offenders.”

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Sept. 3 that the government would conduct an investigation into the recent listeriosis outbreak, which was tied to meat from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto. The report is due before March 15, 2009.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/23/cfia.html