FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa – Michael McCain’s pitch today to retain food industry self-inspection with tougher and uniformly applied safety rules requires more government oversight and inspection, according to the food inspector’s union.

“Canadians want government safety inspectors verifying that companies like Maple Leaf are following the rules. After last summer, who can blame them for their doubts and concerns?” says Bob Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union – PSAC which represents food inspectors who work for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

In a speech today, Mr. McCain suggested that because “you can’t see bacteria” more visual inspections are not necessarily the answer to safer food.

“It’s true you can’t see bacteria but trained inspectors can see conditions in a plant that lead to contamination. In order to verify the Maple Leaf or any other meat facility is safe and following the rules, the CFIA needs inspectors on the plant floor doing visual inspections and physically confirming that all the safety protocols and requirements are being respected. Relying heavily on documents tells you only that a company knows how to complete paperwork. At the moment, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency does not have enough resources to achieve this,” Kingston said.

The Agriculture Union supports Mr. McCain’s call for more and tougher oversight of all food manufacturing companies including those that export their products to Canada. However, it is widely known that the CFIA cannot meet its import inspection requirements, a shortcoming that does put Canadian producers at a disadvantage.

“More rules and government oversight means you need more professional food inspectors at the border and with the skills and know how to detect conditions in Canadian food processing plants that encourage bacterial contamination of consumer food products,” Kingston said.

Kingston says the Union supports McCain’s call for a national food safety standard to be applied to both federally and provincially registered food companies. However, this would have little real impact for most consumers as the vast majority of meat on store shelves is produced by federally registered facilities.

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For information or to book an interview:

Jim Thompson
613-447-9592