Like so many never-ending agriculture-related debates, discussions about the adequacy of Canada’s food inspection and food safety systems are awash in myth, conflicting self-interests and misunderstanding.
At the core is the public’s justified assumption that when industry sends food out for sale, it is safe to eat.
Overwhelmingly, consumers tell pollsters that food safety and inspection are too important to be left to industry.
They want government to be an independent third-party player watching out for their interests.
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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is the face of that effort and it is fair to say that given the amount of food produced in Canada and sold domestically and internationally compared to the relatively few cases of reported food safety problems, the system has a high success rate.
But that is not the impression a casual observer of the food safety debate would get.
Flashpoints usually revolve around the amount of funding CFIA receives (never enough), the number of inspectors on the job (never enough) and the high-profile cases when the system breaks down (Maple Leaf Foods and listeria).
Private sector critics of CFIA, often self-anointed ‘health’ groups, regularly accuse it of being too cozy with the food industry it oversees.
In its campaign to get more government funding and inspectors, the agriculture union of the Public Service Alliance of Canada provides critics with incendiary fodder, regularly suggesting the food supply may be unsafe because inspectors are too few and overworked.
Last week, for example, the union prefaced a House of Commons committee meeting on a damning audit of CFIA systems for regulating food imports by releasing a claim that “stopping unsafe food from reaching grocery shelves is not the purpose of import inspection and less than two percent of food imported into Canada is inspected.”
For citizens who often wrongly believe every item on the shelf is or should be inspected, that is scary.
Opposition critics often are quick to jump on the union allegations.
It is amazing that trust in the food safety system is as solid as it is.
Since the Consumers’ Association of Canada has all but disappeared from any food debate, it leaves only CFIA, the government and industry to defend the system.
Their obvious self-interest undermines the credibility of the message.
The CFIA is not the greatest communicator. Last week, Brian Evans, chief food safety officer for CFIA, agreed with a Conservative MP that fixating on inspector numbers misses the larger point. Food safety is a system that involves farmers, industry, foreign inspector reports and paper trails
“You cannot test and inspect your way to food safety,” he said.
But it is tough message to sell to consumers largely ignorant of the complexities of the food system.
It wasn’t helped when Evans insisted the critical audit on imports was not really a comment on the inspection system and then spent 10 minutes explaining improvements that have been made since.
It didn’t sound like a perfectly straight answer.
