OTTAWA — The Canadian Meat Council wants an end to the two tiered meat inspection system.
“We believe that the best option for reducing interprovincial barriers and promoting trade of meat products in both Canada and export markets would be to terminate the existence of a two tiered system of food safety regulations and inspection in this country and move to one level of food safety inspection, which is federal,” said Henry Mizrahi, president of Lester’s Foods in Laval, Que., and past-president of the meat council, which represents federally inspected meat plants.
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Some small provincially inspected meat companies might be forced to close if they cannot achieve the higher level of food safety required, so government would have to help them make the transition, Mizrahi told the council’s annual meeting in Ottawa May 7-8.
“We want to ensure that these companies can continue to survive but under a unified system that provides the same food safety protections that we do,” he said.
Ninety-five percent of animals slaughtered in Canada are processed in federally registered establishments. Products produced in provincially registered facilities can be traded only within the province.
These plants need to be upgraded to ensure all are producing a safe product, said Ray Price, president of Sunterra Meats in Alberta.
“I think some of the provincial systems are relatively close to the federal system from an inspection perspective, but some are not. Some do not even have inspections,” he said.
Price said it is possible to move to the federal system because his family-owned company did so successfully.
“We are probably the smallest plant in the federal system, but at the same time we know we are way better than we used to be under the federal system,” he said.
His greatest fear would be for someone to get sick because they ate food produced by his company.
“We spend more money on food safety as an industry than anything else,” he said.
Food safety specialist Rick Holley of the University of Manitoba said this is a long-standing issue. Similar systems exist in other countries where regions regulate meat processing.
“There doesn’t seem to be an easy resolution because on the one hand, it is not good to have two sets of standards. On the other hand, if you en-force the federal standards at the provincial levels, you are not going to have anybody at the provincial level to sell meat to people in the small towns,” he said in an interview. “When that happens, you are going to have an underground trade that won’t have any standards or control at all.”
He said compromises are needed, and it is possible to move forward with systems that are safe at the provincial level. Canada is large and diverse, and some regions can get fresh meat only from regional processors.
