Canadians can be confident health and safety standards will not be compromised as changes are made to the national food inspection system, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said Monday.
He was commenting on fears expressed by farm lobbyists and the union representing federal food inspectors last week about the fallout if Canada turns more of its inspection system over to the companies which process the food.
Vanclief did not deny that fewer federal inspectors will be employed in future but he said inspection standards will not be lowered.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
“The bottom line is health and safety.”
Concerns from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the Agricultural Union of the Public Service Alliance of Canada came after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in late July supported in principle an Australian proposal to export meat from selected packing plants where most inspection is done by plant employees.
Government inspectors monitor the process.
But Canada hedged its bets, refusing to accept product from those plants until it is certain they are safe.
Critics saw that as Canadian support for a policy drift toward private inspection and fewer public inspectors.
Some layoffs possible
Vanclief said he did not want to be “alarmist” on whether inspectors will be laid off as Canadian packing plants move to the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points system of high tech inspection.
But clearly he does not equate the number of inspectors with food safety. “Does it mean if there were twice as many inspectors, the food would be twice as safe? I don’t think so.”
Agriculture union president Larry Leng said Aug. 25 there would be strong resistance to increased private control of inspection as a cost-cutting policy.
“I am hoping we are told we are not moving toward more private control,” he said. “Most certainly, there would be consumer concern and opposition.”
