Jamie Oliver lectures Canadian politicians on diet education

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is lobbying Canadian politicians to educate the public about proper diets.

"The biggest killer in your country is diet-related disease. It's not guns, it's not armed robbery," Oliver said in an exclusive interview from Sydney, Australia, where he launched a global campaign this week urging G20 countries to make food education mandatory in schools.

"When it has a dramatic cost to public health, which it does in Canada ... you really need to do something much more long term, much more strategic."

Oliver is well known for his international advocacy for healthy food in schools, but he's upping the ante with his G20 campaign.

He's aiming for millions of signatures worldwide, and is off to a good start: an online petition through the website Change.org attracted 160,000 in the first 24 hours. Oliver cooked for G20 leaders in London at their 2009 summit.

Olymel strike continues

The union for about 1,000 Olymel employees at its hog-packing plant in the Beauce Region is refusing to recommend members ratify an agreement proposed by a provincial-government conciliator.

The strike has disrupted hog marketing across Quebec, Ontario and into the United States as hog farmers seek alternate buyers.

It has also prompted the Ontario Pork Industry Council to caution farmers to be careful about allowing trucks and trailers on their farms that have been at U.S. packing plants where Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus is more prevalent than in Canada.

Farmer fined for on-farm sheep slaughter

Anthony Scissons of Dunrobbin has been convicted to illegal slaughter of lambs at his farm.

The slaughter was done for celebration of Eid by Muslims in the community.

Justice of the Peace Brian Mackey ruled that Scissons could not use the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as his defence, but deferred his formal decision until March 11.

That’s when he was judged guilty of violating regulations of the Food Safety and Quality Act., including carrying on a licensed activity without holding a licence, failure to ensure pre-slaughter iinspection of food animal and approval for slaughter,  failure to ensure after-slaughter inspection and unlawful selling of a carcass. 


The court ordered Mr. Scissons to pay a total of $1,250. Two additional charges for selling the carcass of a food animal were stayed.

Mannarich licence suspended

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has suspended the licence to operate of Establishment 737, Mannarich Food Inc. in Markham, Ontario.

The CFIA says it “has determined that adequate controls for food safety are not being reliably implemented in the facility on a consistent basis, as required by the Meat Inspection Regulations. The company has failed to correct deficiencies previously identified through CFIA inspections.

“There is no recall associated with this suspension.

“The company will not be able to resume operations until it has fully implemented the necessary corrective actions and the CFIA is fully confident in the company’s capacity to effectively manage food safety risks.”

The company was founded in 1976 to cater to Chinese communities. 

Besides its own label products, it markets private label products to supermarkets, foodservice and institutional service clients.

                         

Patty Palace licence suspended

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has suspended the licence to operate of Establishment 409, 732840 Ontario Limited (Patty Palace) in Scarborough, Toronto.

The CFIA says it “has determined that adequate controls for food safety are not being reliably implemented in the facility on a consistent basis, as required by the Meat Inspection Regulations.

“The company has failed to correct deficiencies previously identified through CFIA inspections.”

There is no recall associated with this suspension.

“The company will not be able to resume operations until it has fully implemented the necessary corrective actions and the CFIA is fully confident in the company's capacity to effectively manage food safety risks,” says the CFIA on its website.

The Patty Palace website says it has been in operation since 1977 and sells to supermarket chains, convenience stores, club stores and foodservice companies across Canada and the U.S.

Its products are meats, poultry, cheese and fruit.