A PRODUCT recall is never done lightly. It usually alerts consumers to a danger associated with a product and triggers heavy monetary losses.
Putting aside matters of health dangers, nervous consumers, a failure in the quality assurance system at the farm level and the money lost by the producer and the slaughtering plant, the recent recall of 20,000 kilograms of pork processed by Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods in Saskatoon does have a positive side.
No one reported illness from the affected meat and most of it never reached store shelves.
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There are other silver linings to the cloud. The pig showing traces of penicillin was found during a random inspection. It was traced quickly to its origin and measures are being taken to ensure the situation does not repeat.
The recall does two critical things.
It emphasizes why the meat industry pushed for a national mandatory quality assurance program – to identify and prevent physical, chemical and microbial hazards in all federally registered meat processing plants.
This is being implemented. By April 29, 2002, all hogs shipped to Mitchell’s must be part of the program.
The quality assurance program is critical for the pork industry, especially to its international image. Canada is the 13th largest pork producer in the world and exports much of its production.
According to the Canada Pork Council, about 40 percent of the 19 million hogs produced in Canada each year is exported to 85 different countries.
For the prairie provinces, it’s even more critical. They are three of the top five hog producing provinces in Canada, and slaughtered more than seven million hogs last year. Manitoba exports more than 90 percent of the three million hogs it produces annually.
While every animal is checked before slaughter and during processing, it’s impossible to test for drug residue in every hog going through the plants. At Mitchell’s, six hogs are checked randomly by inspectors out of the 18,000 hogs slaughtered each week.
So the recall emphasizes another critical point. It is a wake-up call for producers to accept their responsibilities and meet the requirements of the quality assurance program.
If protocol isn’t followed for even one pig, it can affect a slaughtering plant and endanger the public.
No producer would wish to intentionally cause harm, but this recall emphasizes the importance of proper paperwork on the farm regarding medications.
Antibiotics are needed to ensure healthy animals get to market, but producers must be careful the medications don’t enter the food chain.
The Canadian Quality Assurance program ensures Canada’s pork remains among the safest in the world, and producers, as always, bear the ultimate responsibility to follow the rules.
