Many in the grain industry are worried about tough new standards that Health Canada is considering for a common grain fungus.
The new standards could cause some wheat to be rejected from the food system and impose millions of dollars of costs on farmers.
However, even though ochratoxin A (OTA) can be toxic at high levels, there’s scant evidence it causes problems at typical levels, members of the Canada Grains Council heard at their annual meeting in Winnipeg April 20.
“If we put this into a regulation, you potentially add a large amount of cost to Western Canada, so I think you have to be able to justify it somehow,” Lawrence Klusa, manager of quality control for the Canadian Wheat Board, told a senior Health Canada official at the meeting.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“We are certainly concerned about it. We certainly don’t want to create health problems, but there are other approaches I think we need to look at.”
OTA has been around for decades, but has only recently become a worrisome issue in the world grain trade.
European lawmakers and regulators have begun treating OTA as dangerous, and shipments of many types of wheat and wheat products such as pasta have been affected.
The increased attention is alarming the Canadian grain trade not only because of the export implications but also because of Health Canada’s plans.
Mark Feeley, head of toxicology for Health Canada, said one proposed standard would find three percent of hard spring wheat to contain too-high levels of OTA, as well as nine percent of infant cereals, 1.5 percent of breakfast cereals and six percent of raisins.
Feeley acknowledged Health Canada has no proof OTA causes health problems at these levels, but he said the department needs to minimize the chance that it could happen.
“The overall goal, as we see it, is to minimize exposure to a contaminant that is naturally occurring in a broad number of staple foods and is consumed on a regular basis by the population of Canada without impacting the overall consumption pattern of Canadians or the availability of them,” he said.
“We are indicating it could be a potential risk factor for possible kidney disease. As has been pointed out, there is no definitive evidence to show that ochratoxin A is causing harmful (effects) in humans. What we are looking at is control of a possible risk factor.”
Lois Haighton of Cantox Health Sciences said her company’s study of OTA has concluded that there is little risk from the disease at naturally occurring levels and that most new proposed standards are too high.
