Canada
Last
Updated: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 | 1:34 PM ET
CBC News
Source of Article: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/08/27/food-safety.html
Bob Kingston,
a former inspector with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and now a union
head, says food producers are increasingly taking on inspection duties. (CBC)
Federal inspectors are spending
less time on the factory floor and relying more on food producers to monitor
themselves, the head of the union for federal food safety inspectors said
Wednesday.
Since March 31, food producers
have been conducting their own tests for bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes, and writing their own food safety
reports, Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union of the Public Service
Alliance of Canada, told the CBC's Susan Bonner.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
inspectors have since had to deal with significantly more paperwork, which
reduces their awareness of the everyday goings-on at meat-packing and
processing facilities, said
"The biggest concern from
the [CFIA] inspection staff is simply the amount of time now they spend looking
at reports and generating reports," said
"And all of that means time
off of the production floor."
Not enough attention was given to
how the transition to the new procedures would affect the food inspection
process, said
"Basically there is a
transition period where you know that things are going to be a little touch and
go, and there probably should have been more resources put into the program, at
least until there had been enough time to see how it worked."
A spokesman for the CFIA based in
Listeriosis a factor in at
least 6 deaths
His comments come in the wake of
a massive meat recall caused by a deadly outbreak of listeriosis.
As of Tuesday, there were 29
confirmed cases of listeriosis across
Of the 29, there are 15 confirmed
deaths, mostly in
At the Maple Leaf Foods plant at
the centre of the outbreak, the sole inspector overseeing the plant's health
guidelines was left sifting through paperwork, said Kingston and the manager of
the plant in an interview with the Globe and Mail on Tuesday.
Inspectors are now instructed
more rigorously on how to spend their day, said
"So it means they don't get
to go to the place where they know there is the highest risk in plant, for
instance, unless it happens to be on that schedule for the day," he said.
"It worries me that
inspectors are reporting that they don't have the comfort level they once
had."
Conservatives yet to reveal future food rules
A secret cabinet document leaked
last month suggested the federal Conservatives want to hand over more
inspection duties to industry as a part of future reforms.
The Tories, who haven't yet legislated any changes in food inspection policy, have not
confirmed what their plans for reform would be.
They also haven't indicated that
any changes have been made, besides hiring 200 new federal inspectors since
their government took power in January 2006.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
told reporters Tuesday the food rules were in need of a "reform and
revamp" after "some years of neglect."
Critics have increasingly voiced
their concerns federal Conservatives' plans for food inspection reform.
Ontario Health Minister David Caplan said Tuesday he is concerned by the Tories' plan to
shift more responsibility for food inspection to producers.
Last week, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter
criticized the Tories for the possible changes, with Easter accusing the Tories
of downloading responsibility for food inspection onto industry as a
"cost-saving measure."
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