VICTORIA – Changes in food safety laws in the United States will spill over to Canada, says the head of the American Meat Institute. “Because of our volume of trade and the requirement of inspection equivalency, whatever we have to adapt to in the U.S. will eventually find its way to Canadian plants if you are exporting product to the United States,” Patrick Boyle told the Canadian Meat Council annual meeting in Victoria May 5-7.Cases of E. coli, salmonella and other pathogens linked to food poisoning are down in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but a series of high profile cases have prompted American regulators to tighten inspections.”We have had great success, but nevertheless there is an effort that will be successful to reform food safety legislation and it is targeted specifically at the Food and Drug Administration rather than the United States Department of Agriculture that regulates our meat and poultry facilities,” Boyle said. New legislation would give the FDA more regulatory authority, and a bill before Congress would require federal registration of all 136,000 food processing facilities operating within the jurisdiction of agency. Inspectors are present every day in 6,000 of these plants, but many others are not even registered with government. Under the new law, FDA will be able to inspect more plants and deregister them if necessary. It would also receive mandatory food recall authority, which would also be extended to other regulators such as the USDA.Canada is also stepping up food safety regulations, and the meat council has formed working groups to learn how to handle specific pathogens such as listeria.Council executive director Jim Laws said the industry is taking food borne illnesses seriously, especially since 2008 when a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto was found to harbour listeria in its equipment. The outbreak from eating prepared meat resulted in 57 confirmed cases and 22 deaths. The recall cost the company $20 million, and it settled a class action lawsuit for $27 million. Laws said the event was sobering, but the council wants support for better food safety practices rather than punitive legislation”We need rules that do not penalize companies,” he said. Steve Morin, council president and head of pork procurement with Olymel Foods, said Canada’s meat processing sector is subject to more regulations and inspections than any other processed food. “Our members have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in food safety systems, laboratory testing, product tests and in plant sanitation and equipment improvement,” he said.”We tend to forget that here in Canada we consume over 100 million meals each and every day. Contaminants in meals is very rare.”
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