A friend sent me a batch of information the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency released only because somebody had filed an
Access-to-Information request.
I learned that:
- · Maple Leaf Foods Inc. complained that a provincially-inspected meat-packing plant won the contract to supply box lunches for the military, and that the CFIA said that’s ok since the troops live in Ontario where the meat-packing plant in question is under provincial inspection.
- · CFIA is reviewing its internal governance because, frankly, it screwed up in responding to the Listeria monocytogenes food-poisoning situation in which 23 Canadians died because they ate Maple Leaf products.
·
CFIA has hired McMaster University to determine
whether Aptamar technology can be used to develop a rapid test for Listeria
monocytogenes.
·
Maple Leaf wanted the CFIA to use rapid-detection
tests available from the U.S. for Listeria monocytogenes so it wouldn’t have to
sit on products awaiting test results.
·
Canadian meat packers are the most likely ones to
complain to the CFIA that imported products fail to meet Canadian labeling
requirements.
·
Maple Leaf complained that it is not allowed to use
the cans that competitors from other countries use to package meats available
in Canadian stores. The CFIA replied that we sign trade deals to accept the
standards in place in the other countries. The CFIA said it is “taking steps”
to level the playing field.
·
The CFIA admitted it screwed up when it stopped
providing 72 hours notice to importers that their shipments could be subjected
to inspection. Trouble is, there were no convenient places near border crossing
points to conduct the inspections, unlike the situation in the U.S. where they
do have convenient nearby testing facilities. The CFIA apparently jumped to
correct gaffes only after the media embarrassed the bureaucrats.
·
The Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council
complained that the CFIA responses to deads-on-arrival at chicken-processing
plants are not the same across all regions of Canada. The CFIA apparently began
cracking down in some regions, especially on spent hens, because it wants “to
maintain public confidence”. Sounds like a knee-jerk reaction to animal
activists.
·
The CFIA backed down on a Poultry Rejection Project
after unionized veterinarians objected to shifting decisions on how to deal
with rejected birds at processing plants from government to company staff.
·
The Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council
complained about having to meet traceability standards that don’t yet apply to
back-yard flocks.
·
The CFIA’s top brass has regular meeting with the
Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council and the Canadian Meat Council. It
has also met with executives from Maple Leaf, Nestle, the deans of the five
veterinary colleges, the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors and the
Retail Council of Canada.
·
There is a Canadian Agricultural Review Tribunal to
which companies that have been fined by the CFIA can appeal.
