Steak should still sizzle on backyard barbecues across Canada this summer, say food industry officials.
Both the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors and the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association say although consumers are concerned about the news that one cow in northern Alberta tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, they are keeping beef on their plates.
The CCGD represents 80 percent of the retail distribution in Canada.
“We’ve been tracking beef sales across the country with all our retailers,” Kim McKinnon, vice-president of communications, said May 26.
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“We have found that the flow of beef sales has not been affected up to and including today. It remains steady.”
Canadian restaurants are reporting similar findings.
Jill Holroyd, vice-president of research and communications for the CRFA, said it’s too early to tell if there will be an impact on the organization’s 16,500 members, who are already coping with the effects of a weak economy and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Toronto.
CRFA members urge consumers to make sure they understand the issue.
“I think most consumers are paying attention to the facts,” she said.
Only one cow had tested positive, and it did not enter the human food supply, she noted.
That said, the quicker Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials finish their investigation the better it is for all involved.
The concern is that people could develop new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease by eating meat processed from infected animals.
Worldwide, about 130 people have died from vCJD, most of them in Britain.
Canada’s only case was a Saskatchewan man who died last summer. He was thought to have eaten infected meat while in Britain.
Canadians generally don’t eat the types of tissue that pose the greatest risk – the brain, parts of the eye and the spinal cord.
Muscle cuts like steak and roasts present a lower level of risk.
Paul Mayers, associate director general in the food directorate at Health Canada, said consumers will only be reassured if they are satisfied that everything possible is being done to make sure their food supply is safe.
Health Canada is working alongside CFIA in evaluating the information gleaned from the investigation.
“We can continue to indicate that the risk is low and indicate that we’ve got no basis. . .to advise Canadians to modify their diets,” Mayers said.
If the investigation identifies other “potential insults” to human health, the department will evaluate them, he said.
