SASKATOON – Canadians should consider allowing packing companies to run their own meat inspection programs, with government auditing the process, says a Saskatchewan economist who has studied the Australian move in the same direction.
John Spriggs, of the University of Saskatchewan agricultural economics department, spent two months studying Australia’s use of company inspection.
He says it has worked to reduce costs while maintaining safe food. But because of unease in other countries, Australia maintains government inspectors in export plants.
Spriggs told a recent trade conference at the university that Canada should consider following Australia’s lead. With company inspectors audited by government officials, they call it co-regulation rather than privatization of inspection or industry self-regulation.
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“Food safety can be an emotionally charged issue and the idea that we can and should rely on government to take the responsibility for safe food is a comforting one to many consumers,” he told the conference.
“However, the need for government inspectors may be more perception than reality.”
Spriggs said the Australian government was able to neutralize union opposition and satisfy consumers that company inspection would be diligent both because companies do not want to lose sales through a bad reputation and because government inspectors audit on a cost-recovery basis. The greater the incidence of food safety problems from a plant, the more frequent the audit and the greater the cost.
Problems encountered
He said Canadians should be willing to recognize that government inspection is not always diligent, can be costly and inefficient and sometimes misses or ignores food safety problems.
“I would at least like to see a debate in Canada,” Spriggs said during a question period after his paper had been delivered.
He said Australia has not been able to move totally to the new industry self-regulation model because the United States and Europe have not accepted that company-inspected meat can be exported. Canada also has voiced some concerns.
Only plants serving Australian consumers now are part of the new system.
But Spriggs said: “In the increasingly globalized economy, a country’s approach to food safety can impact significantly on a product’s international competitiveness.”
