Senior government officials responsible for food safety and inspection have a message: the system has never been better.
Since the 2008 listeria outbreak caused by contaminated meat from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto, inspection, collaboration and communications all have been improved.
And the government has injected $88 million into the Canadian food inspection budget to hire more inspectors and beef up the system.
“We have never been in a better position to prevent, detect and respond to food-borne illness outbreaks in Canada,” said David Butler- Jones, chief public health officer from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
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Butler Jones made the comments to MPs on the House of Commons health committee Nov. 4.
The committee was beginning public hearings into what steps have been taken to implement improvements recommended in Sheila Weatherill’s 2009 report on the listeria crisis.
But assurances that all is well in the food safety system were sideswiped by allegations from the food inspectors’ union that there are not enough inspectors to do a proper job.
Hours before the hearing opened, the Agriculture Union of the Public Service Alliance of Canada issued a statement accusing the government of spinning the evidence to downplay inspector complaints about too few resources.
“Many of the shortcomings that contributed to the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis disaster two years ago continue to plague the Canadian meat inspection system today,” said union president Bob Kingston in the statement.
“Effectively, this means that consumers are eating high-risk ‘ready-to- eat’ foods that may not have been adequately inspected, produced in factories that may or may not be meeting safety requirements.”
While senior officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada argued the opposite case, the theme of the meeting had been set.
Opposition MPs concentrated most of their questions on the union allegations and questions about the number of inspectors engaged in the Compliance Verification System that makes sure companies are following the rules.
Responding to a union accusation, Liberal health critic Ujjal Dosanjh asked if there were in fact fewer inspectors working on compliance verification at non-slaughter meat production sites than there were before the listeria outbreak.
“It is true that we have more inspectors now working on compliance verification than we had before and we are hiring 170 new inspectors,” replied CFIA president Carole Swan.
But CFIA officials could not come up with a precise number of inspectors in non-slaughter plants, arguing that compliance verification inspections are only part of what inspectors do so the number on any given day can change.
CFIA officials also argued that the number of inspectors has increased by more than 500 since 2006 and $88 million of increased funding during the past two years has been used to hire inspectors.
Officials also highlighted progress in developing faster tests for listeria detection, better co-ordination between departments and a better communications policy that is in the works.
But the opposition focus was on staffing numbers.
“It really looks like we’ve got less than we did before,” said Liberal Kirsty Duncan.
“The people on the ground are the ones doing the job and they’re saying what you’re suggesting isn’t enough,” added New Democrat Carol Hughes.
Conservative MP Bev Shipley said the original investigation concluded that the 2008 outbreak was not because of lack of inspection.
And he noted that the current government reinstated in 2009 a safeguard the Liberals had dropped in 2005 – a requirement that plant operators conduct environmental testing and report any listeria findings to the CFIA.