OTTAWA – After years of inter-departmental feuding over food inspection jurisdiction, the federal government has moved to streamline the inspection bureaucracy faced by food processors.
Agriculture Canada inspectors now will be the only front-line inspectors in such establishments as meat packing or processing plants.
Health department inspectors, who in the past have been doing food safety spot checks on as many as 20 percent of plants each year, have agreed to step back. Health department officials will maintain their role of ensuring food safety and health standards by auditing the performance of Agriculture Canada inspectors.
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“We’re trying to move toward a single hands-on food inspection system and by getting our act together federally, it puts us in a better position to go to the provinces,” said Agriculture Canada’s chief bureaucrat in charge of food production and inspection.
In the past, food processors have had to face several layers of federal inspectors and in some cases, provincial and municipal inspectors as well.
“In our own jurisdiction, at least, we have moved to end the overlap,” said assistant deputy agriculture minister Art Olson.
He said it will reduce the regulatory weight on the food industry. “Over the long term, by making the federal food inspection system more streamlined, there also can be savings.”
The meat processing industry is one of the most affected and a spokesman for the Canadian Meat Council said the new system is welcome.
“We’ve supported the move toward one-stop shopping in inspection,” meat council secretary Larry Campbell said. “We believe that the resident Agriculture Canada inspector should have full authority. We view the move to reduce overlap as positive, particularly in these days of tight resources.”
Campbell said those in the meat industry would like to see any savings put toward improving inspection in the “gaps” that now exist in the system – gaps such as a lack of inspection in stores which grind their own sausage or which repackage meat in vacuum packages.
“From a safety point of view, we would like to see these areas improved.”
Olson said consumer food safety concerns which the health department traditionally has used to justify its re-inspections will be met through the health department audit of the performance of Agriculture Canada inspectors.
He said his inspectors will be responsible for policing food processor adherence to all the health and safety rules in both Agriculture Canada and health department laws.
They also will have the job of making sure product labels meet Canadian requirements, although eventually, he said it is a job that could be turned over to the private sector.
