Media Story
Cheap meat and cruelty
Jun 9th, 2010
Victoria Times Columnist
The way some animals are being transported to slaughter in Canada could make you sick. Not just heartsick at what appears to be careless cruelty. But physically sick. [More...]
Canada’s food safety lacks farm-to-fork traceability
Jun 3rd, 2010
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
Despite a sharpened focus on food safety in Canada after the 2008 listeriosis crisis, the quality of the country’s food-safety system remains essentially unchanged, a newly published ranking concludes. [More...]
Audit Finds Tainted Meat Reaching Consumers
Apr 21st, 2010
by Helena Bottemiller Food Safety News
Veterinary drugs, pesticides, and heavy metals are making it onto our plates via meat, according to a federal audit released this week. [More...]
Immediate action on food safety needs to be taken
Apr 21st, 2010
By KIRSTY DUNCAN, CAROLYN BENNETT AND WAYNE EASTER Owen Sound Sun Times
Canadians have been fed a new vocabulary by the federal government: “global synchronized economic downturn,” “recalibration,” and “listeria outbreak.” [More...]
Family’s juice-box ordeal highlights food-industry woes: Expert
Apr 6th, 2010
By Sarah Schmidt Canwest News Service
In Johnny’s mind, it seemed like the obvious thing to do.
The boy didn’t want his classmate to get sick, so he walked right over to him, took the juice box and poured the drink down the drain. [More...]
Pasteurization makes meat safer, scientist says
Mar 18th, 2010
By Joanna Smith, Toronto Star
Ridding deli meats of harmful bacteria through pasteurization and other technological advances could help protect consumers while reducing the frequency of inspections, a food scientist says. [More...]
Deli meat OK for Canadians but off-limits to Americans
Mar 17th, 2010
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency cut off access to American markets for the Toronto plant at the centre of an ongoing listeriosis investigation connected to tainted deli meats while allowing the company to continue to produce food for Canadians, Canwest News Service has learned. [More...]
Beef up number of food inspectors: Union
Mar 17th, 2010
By Bryn Weese, Toronto Sun
Canadian food inspectors are working overtime to meet American food safety standards, a move their union calls “unsustainable.” [More...]
HVP recall poses safety questions
Mar 13th, 2010
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
It sounds more like a chemical than a food ingredient and until this week most consumers had probably never heard of hydrolyzed vegetable protein – let alone realized the additive is found in thousands of processed foods. [More...]
Canada expands recall of salmonella-tainted products
Mar 13th, 2010
Canwest News Service
More items were added Saturday morning to a growing recall list of products that could be contaminated with salmonella after a popular flavour enhancer was found to be tainted with the bacteria last month. [More...]
2 listeriosis cases investigated in Ont.
Mar 11th, 2010
CBC.ca
Ontario health officials are investigating two cases of listeriosis that appear to be linked to salami recalled from stores in Ontario and Quebec about three months ago. [More...]
No food recall poses health risk Option consommateurs asks Agriculture Minister to intervene
Mar 11th, 2010
Option Consommateurs news release
Option consommateurs is concerned over the decision by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to authorize the sale of potentially contaminated food and has asked federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz to intervene on the issue. [More...]
Food recalls likely to come slowly
Mar 9th, 2010
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
It could take months for some food companies to figure out whether a popular flavouring ingredient contaminated with salmonella found its way into their products, industry experts say. [More...]
Brace for massive food recall: officials
Mar 9th, 2010
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
Canadian consumers can likely expect an avalanche of food recalls after an ingredient used in thousands of processed foods was found to be contaminated with salmonella, government investigators said Friday. [More...]
Foodborne Illness Costs U.S. $152 Billion Annually, Landmark Report Estimates
Mar 5th, 2010
Make Our Food Safe.org
Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration economist Robert L. Scharff estimates the total economic impact of foodborne illness across the nation to be a combined $152 billion annually. [More...]
Contamination scare leading to food recalls in Canada
Mar 5th, 2010
CTV.ca
The recall in the U.S. of a commonly used food additive because of a risk of salmonella poisoning has sparked the recall of a number of food products in Canada — and could lead to many more. [More...]
Obama Boosts FDA Food Safety in FY2011 Budget
Feb 3rd, 2010
by Helena Bottemiller , Food Safety News What Obama’s budget means for food safety: FDA gets big bump, but relies on fees in pending food safety legislation; FSIS budget leaves experts concerned. [More...]
Canadian Coalition Wants on PM’s Agenda
Feb 3rd, 2010
by Dan Flynn, Food Safety News
The Canadian Supply Chain Food Safety Coalition is asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a new round of consultations between Ministers of Health, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the agri-food industry. [More]
Government gets failing grade on food safety from union, consumers’ group
Jan 27th, 2010
Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The government hasn’t improved the food-safety system six months after the fatal listeriosis outbreak, food inspectors and a consumers group said Wednesday. [More]
Food inspection agency hasn’t acted on safety recommendations: report
Jan 27th, 2010
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Wednesday received a failing grade from its own meat inspectors for not acting on the “vast majority” of recommendations made six months ago to improve food safety. [More]
Independence of food safety probe questioned
Nov 12th, 2009
By: Sarah Schmidt, Vancouver Sun
OTTAWA — The federal government has appointed the top bureaucrat at Agriculture Canada to lead Ottawa’s overhaul of food safety after an investigation into last year’s deadly listeriosis outbreak called for an independent expert to direct the effort.
Sheila Weatherill zeroed in on a “vacuum in senior leadership” among government officials during [...]
E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection
Oct 3rd, 2009
By: MICHAEL MOSS, New York Times
Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.
Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in [...]
Report calls for listeria inquiry
Jun 19th, 2009
Panel blames ‘turf wars’ for time lost in warning public about meat crisis
By: Robert Cribb, Toronto Star
Canadians need a full public inquiry into the death of 22 Canadians from last summer’s listeria outbreak and increased inspection oversight in meat plants, a parliamentary investigation has concluded.
After two months of hearings, the parliamentary food safety report also [...]
Agriculture committee calls for public inquiry into listeriosis crisis
Jun 18th, 2009
CBC News
A parliamentary committee is calling for a public inquiry into the actions of the federal government and its agencies during last summer’s deadly listeriosis outbreak.
Slicer machines at a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto were disassembled to allow cleaning of internal components deep within the equipment in the wake of last summer’s listeria crisis. [...]
Canada’s food safety in question
May 25th, 2009
Inspection understaffed, warns union
By: Sarah Schmidt, The Windsor Star
Government meat inspectors in Canada’s biggest cities would have to work double shifts on a regular basis to complete all the tasks required to make sure operators are complying with food safety rules, according to newly released data from their union.
The agriculture union of the Public Service [...]
Few meat inspectors mean more ’shortcuts’
May 25th, 2009
By: Robert Cribb, Toronto Star
Federal meat inspectors are each responsible for monitoring about five plants on average – a workload that makes ensuring safe food impossible, says their union.
In a staffing survey to be released today, the agriculture union says it’s impossible for meat inspectors to complete minimum safety tasks in more than two plants.
In [...]
Few trust companies over food safety: Poll
May 12th, 2009
By: Sarah Schmidt, The Vancouver Province
OTTAWA — Most Canadians don’t trust the food industry to ensure their products are safe and want the government to be more hands-on in policing food companies, according to national survey.
The survey of 1,001 Canadians, with findings to be released today, determined that only 13.7 per cent put their faith [...]
