A pilot project for processing shipments
of Canadian meat to United States processors has run into opposition from some food-safety activists.
The project waives inspections at the border and allows truckloads to continue to a destination where there are U.S. meat inspectors
available and to inspect the shipments there.
The trucks remain sealed with a Canadian Food Inspection Agency seal until the destination-site
inspectors open the trucks.
This is what Canada has been doing for meat imports from the
U.S.
Food & Water Watch, the Consumer Federation of America
and the National Consumers League have sent a letter to complain that the pilot
project to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS).
The FSIS says only some fresh beef and pork products from “a
small number of CFIA-registered establishments” are being allows to ship
directly to FSIS-inspected establishments that further process the Canadian
meat.
The consumer groups, though, say that there are “too many unanswered
questions” on how the program actually works.
They claim, that Canada has a higher incidence of foodborne illness than
the U.S., and say that in the past “Canada has had problems meeting U.S.
equivalency standards.”
They can claim whatever they want, as is common in U.S. presidential election campaigns, but where's the proof? I'm claiming it's the U.S. that has a higher incidence of foodborne illness than Canada, and that their standards are not equivalent to ours. So there!
