Canada’s federally inspected meat packing industry is challenging a contention that a planned change in labelling rules for imports will undermine food safety.
Last week in a letter to the members of a House of Commons subcommittee studying food safety and last year’s listeria outbreak, the Canadian Meat Council said earlier witnesses were wrong.
In previous testimony, leaders of the Canadian Association of Regulated Importers, Food Processors of Canada and Chicken Farmers of Canada said a plan to end mandatory pre-market registration for labels on some products would weaken food safety controls on imports.
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At issue is a longstanding policy that allows into Canada only processed meat, fruit and vegetable products with a label previously approved and registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“We believe that compulsory pre-market label approval of meat products is not a food safety issue,” wrote CMC executive director Jim Laws. “Canada’s meat processing industry has been frustrated with the current pre-market registration for labels process.”
He said in a letter to committee chair Larry Miller that the requirement that applies only to meat, fruit and vegetable processors delays product launch and does not contribute to food safety.
“Getting a label pre-approved by someone in an office in Ottawa (CFIA) for a product made elsewhere, particularly imported foods, does not ensure the product is safe nor does it ensure that all ingredients are declared on the labels,” he wrote. “What is a food safety issue is ensuring that what is on the label is indeed what is in the food.”
Although the CMC already has appeared before the committee, Laws said the packers would like to meet again with MPs.
The CMC is worried that MPs will heed the call from critics of the proposed labelling change to recommend that the government change its mind.
When he appeared before MPs, Canadian Association of Regulated Importers executive secretary Robert de Valk pressed for a change in government intention.
He told the committee that pre-registered labels are a key food safety protection.
“Normally, a copy of the registered label, approved and registered by the CFIA, is sent to the inspector in charge at the foreign plant so that inspector has something to look at when he’s signing the export certificate for Canada,” said de Valk.
He said pre-approved labels are a key part of the plan to protect Canadians from inferior poultry product imports.
“The pivotal role played by prior label registration as an efficient and effective means of keeping out imports that do not meet Canadian requirements… seems to be underestimated by the current government,” he said.
During its appearance before the committee, the CMC also called for a single food inspection standard at all plants across the country, creation of a joint Canada-United States food safety authority and better training for CFIA inspectors.
