He says they work together because when Canada can
demonstrate that it has safe food, its global reputation is solid and companies
are able to export.
He says that when he was recently invited to speak to a
convention of food-industry people, they told him the CFIA no longer cares
about promoting the industry.
Since it moved to Health Canada, inspectors seem to care
only about food safety, he says they told him. He comments about this in a
column he writes for Food In Canada.
Would that the CFIA actually did a good job of fulfilling
its foremost mandate.
However, as we learned in a court case about a cheating
veterinarian, thousands of fraudulent Holstein embryos moved into international
markets, seriously tarnishing the Canadian industry.
And more recently, we read that the United States Department
of Agriculture found “systemic failures” in Canada’s meat inspection system.
That’s the most serious shortcoming ever identified by
American inspectors who have been checking Canadian meat-packing plants for at
least 40 years.
And when Doering was president, the Americans were finding
fault – confirmed by on-site Canadian inspectors – when they toured Canadian
food plants.
The Canadian brass on those tours had to concede that what
the Americans identified were, indeed, failures to comply with Canadian
standards.
From my perspective, I think Health Canada may have finally
put the priority for meat inspectors in the right place.
It’s up to the companies to develop their reputations.
