OTTAWA – A parliamentary committee has urged Canada’s food inspection agency to show more leadership when dealing with outbreaks of potentially fatal food-related illnesses.
While the public health and regulatory system suffered several breakdowns during a 1998 incident of tainted food in Toronto that sickened at least 800 people, the House of Commons public accounts committee laid particular blame at the feet of Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“There was less than full co-operation among the agencies in responding to the outbreak and the agencies and departments involved did not maintain appropriate records on the outbreak,” the committee wrote.
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Specific to the CFIA, it said there was “potential for confusion arising from the agency’s relationship with two departments, Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.”
The committee recommended a review of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act, with particular attention paid to CFIA accountability. A call for stronger CFIA leadership in the event of a food contamination incident was one of 11 recommendations made by the committee in a May report to Parliament.
Brian Evans, executive director for CFIA’s animal health directorate, said the agency has already made some changes in response to a September report from the auditor general that was critical of the national health surveillance system.
“We do have in place very much improved communication and working relationships,” said Evans, adding he thinks the committee recommendations are reasonable.
The many variables in food handling and safety preclude any promise that a similar food contamination incident won’t occur again, said Evans.
“No matter how rigorous the system is, there’s always going to be potential for food-borne disease. Our systems are designed to deal with them.”
Committee recommendations will now be considered by CFIA and Health Canada, which will file a joint response to the House.
Most of the recommendations call for greater co-operation and information sharing between parties in the health surveillance system.
The committee recommended that the CFIA maintain a senior or lead role in future food contamination investigations.
In a 1998 case that involved the discovery of salmonella in lunch products, the CFIA ceded its lead role to Health Canada for reasons of jurisdiction.
In a subsequent study, the auditor general said confusion over jurisdiction delayed discovery of the contamination source.
