The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is on the lookout for what it calls “the wallpaper effect” in food processing plants: inspectors too familiar with the inspected to catch lapses.
CFIA executives said they recognize the issue following a scathing report on the XL Foods tainted meat recall that pinpointed lax food inspector oversight as part of the problem.
President George Da Pont said part of the problem is inspectors who are embedded in a plant for years and take too much for granted.
“I think the real issue we are concerned about is when you have the same inspectors working for many years in a plant, there is a possibility they might not be as rigorous after 10 or 15 years as they were at the start,” he said.
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Da Pont said part of the solution is the newly announced inspection verification teams that will make unannounced visits to plants to verify plant practices and inspector rigour.
He said the agency is also looking at rotating inspectors in regions where it is possible, “but this is an issue we have in many types of situations.”
Inspectors also face occasional corporate resistance to their demands for information or more rigorous inspection.
Da Pont said that was an allegation from unions at the XL plant, and while no concrete evidence was produced, the CFIA decided it was a serious enough allegation that inspectors had to be reminded that they have the right to inspect and demand information.
CFIA vice-president of operations Stephen Baker sent a memo to all inspection staff after the XL fiasco, “making it very clear we expect them to do their jobs, we expect them to do it with rigour and if they are facing roadblocks of any sort, senior management will support them,” Da Pont said.
The Dec. 14, 2012, memo to inspectors said: “If you ever feel that you cannot take an action or make a decision you feel is appropriate because you are being impeded by a regulated party, I expect you to raise your concerns immediately to your supervisor or manager. I assure you that you will be heard and appropriate action will be taken.”
Paul Mayers, associate CFIA vice-president for policy and programs, defined the “wallpaper effect” as being in the same room every day and not noticing the wallpaper fade.
“What we want to guard against in those situations, where the same inspector is in essence resident in the plant, is that we guard against that small issues may escape attention, not because they don’t care but because routine exposure minimizes the shock,” he said.
The new inspection verification teams will be a “second set of eyes” to catch that.
