The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is focusing so much energy on tracing the path of a single animal with bovine spongiform encephalopathy that it’s blinded to helping other businesses stay alive, says an Alberta pet food manufacturer.
Peter Muhlenfeld, sales manager with Champion Petfoods, said if the million-dollar Canadian pet food industry is to stay alive, it needs an official within the CFIA to reassure overseas customers that Canadian pet food is safe.
Thousands of tonnes of pet food from Canadian suppliers have been rejected by countries such as South Korea and Taiwan, which are worried the feed might contain ruminant material contaminated by the Alberta cow that tested positive for BSE.
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“The fact the majority of our products don’t contain meat meal doesn’t matter to these countries. It’s no Canadian pet food,” said Muhlenfeld, who estimated his company is losing $200,000 a day in sales.
The company has already laid off two-thirds of its production staff from its plant in Morinville, Alta., in an attempt to stem the flow of red ink after countries began returning pet food. It exports 80 percent of its pet food to 42 countries.
Muhlenfeld said those countries would accept assurances from only the CFIA that the pet food is safe.
“We need someone from CFIA to talk to someone from the Korean department of agriculture or the Taiwan department of agriculture. Those overseas authorities see the CFIA as the competent authority,” he said.
He used a South Korean case as an example of his frustration.
“We contacted the Korean embassy directly and said, ‘we need your help’. The Korean embassy said, ‘that’s a Canadian Food Inspection Agency issue.’ The Canadian Food Inspection Agency tells us that we have to negotiate that ourselves. We go back to the Canadian embassy and they say, ‘the Koreans want to talk to CFIA.’ “
Muhlenfeld said he couldn’t find anyone at CFIA who is appointed to be an advocate for the pet food industry.
“We think we deserve some help and support.”
As part of its investigation, CFIA believes Champion Petfoods may have used rendered material from the infected cow to produce some brands of its dry dog food.
Health Canada issued a statement that there is no evidence to suggest physical contact with dry pet food containing meat and bone meal from the infected cow would pose a risk to humans. There is also no evidence that dogs can contract BSE or any similar disease.
Muhlenfeld said that when his company was told contaminated ruminant material may be at its facility, it unhooked the tank containing the ruminant material so no material could enter the plant.
“We asked CFIA to issue a letter saying there’s no possible way of meat meal entering the plant,” Muhlenfeld said.
“We want to take it back to the renderer, but we can’t because they’re full. We can’t dump it so we thought, disconnect it and seal it off. This is day three of asking (the CFIA) and they say they’re checking and we’ll get back to you.”
Muhlenfeld said he doesn’t know how long the company can survive with no sales.
“Our pockets aren’t very deep. Eventually you run out of money.”
CFIA communications officer Mark Van Dusen said the agency doesn’t regulate the pet food industry, but he is aware there have been discussions with the pet food industry.
Van Dusen said he couldn’t contact the right CFIA official to see how discussions are progressing.
