By: Joanna Smith, Toronto Star

OTTAWA – The head of the federal food inspectors’ union said an outbreak of deadly bacteria traced to ready-to-eat meats might have been prevented if the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had hired twice as many watchdogs.

“I think it’s likely that it might not have happened,” Bob Kingston, president of the agriculture section at the Public Service Alliance of Canada, told a parliamentary subcommittee probing the listeriosis crisis.

Twenty-two people died and hundreds more were sickened across Canada last summer after eating deli meats from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto tainted with bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes.

Kingston called for more staff and better training to ensure inspectors are not overworked to the point where it is impossible for them to carry out their assigned tasks.

He said that would include putting inspectors in charge of no more than two facilities. A union survey shows they are now responsible for an average of five.

Kingston also called for adequate training in the new Compliance Verification System and for the union to jointly evaluate its effectiveness with the food inspection agency.

The union has long complained the new system reduces the role of the inspector to an auditor who checks company paperwork. But Kingston said yesterday the system could work so long as the inspection agency has the resources to do it properly.

© Toronto Star