CANADA’S food safety and inspection system is recognized as one of the best in the world, but also far from perfect.
So plans to change it raise equal measures of hope that deficiencies will be corrected and worry that its standards may be degraded in pursuit of lower government expenditure and an ideology of deregulation.
The plan received major media coverage this month after a Canadian Food Inspection Agency employee was fired for disclosing to his union an internal agency document containing details of the reorganization.
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News coverage about the document highlighted the government’s plan to transfer some aspects of food inspection to industry, prompting some to allege that it will lead to disaster, akin to putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
Coverage mostly missed the fact that the changes are part of a federal Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan announced with little detail in December and given some flesh in the February federal budget.
Analysis of the plan’s merits should focus on whether it produces the desired result of safer food and not on the process. Requiring a federal inspector to stand on the processing line is not the only way to ensure safe food.
Nor should we trust that corporations will properly monitor themselves simply because they have a reputation to protect.
The government says the reorganization focuses on three goals: preventing problems before they develop; targeting the highest or unknown risks; and rapid response, such as food recalls, when problems emerge.
Also important are new provisions to extend the ability to monitor the safety of imported food.
To further the first goal, prevention, the plan will require companies to adopt more traceability and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans.
The changes will also increase fines and penalties to provide the stick needed to encourage compliance.
This sounds laudable, but as program details dribble out, like cuts to the avian influenza preparedness program, changes to the BSE testing program and allowing feed mills and meat processors to conduct their own inspections, more explanation is needed to soothe concerns.
Ensuring a safe food supply is a fundamental responsibility of government. While industry HACCP plans might lessen the need for federal inspectors, government must not step back too far.
Most businesses produce safe products, but it is naïve to think all companies always put safety first in order to preserve their reputation. There are far too many examples of companies cutting corners, pressuring staff quality officers and covering up mistakes. Rigorous government oversight is essential and contraventions must be punished.
The consequences of failing to ensure food safety can be terrible: sickness and death and the ruined reputation of the entire nation’s industry, causing billions of dollars in lost business.
The government must tread carefully.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
