Posts tagged CFIA

Video: Chris Olsen on Maple Leaf recall

CTV British Columbia

Video: Inspecting Ottawa’s food inspector promise

Global National

PHANTOM TRUCKS SHOW NEW MEAT INSPECTION REGIME NOT WORKING: New Democrats Masse and Allen say safety of Canada’s food at risk

NDP Press Release
WINDSOR – New Democrat Border Critic Brian Masse (Windsor-West) says disturbing new information about trucks carrying imported meats that are failing to report for inspections shows that the Harper government’s new food-safety regime simply isn’t working.[More...]

Feeling queasy

Ottawa Citizen Editorial 
It has been 18 months since 22 Canadians died after eating tainted meat and, despite government assurances that food safety systems are more effective than ever, consumers ought to be skeptical.  [More...]

Government gets failing grade on food safety

By Christina Spencer, Parliamentary Bureau SUN News Service
OTTAWA — The union representing federal meat inspectors has given the government a failing grade for moving too slowly to boost food safety since the listeriosis outbreak of 2008 that killed at least 22 people.  [More]

Food inspection agency hasn’t acted on safety recommendations: report

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]

Federal Government gets failing grade on food safety

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa – Inaction on food safety has earned the federal government a failing grade six months after the Prime Minister’s special investigator Sheila Weatherill tabled recommendations on how to prevent a repeat of the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis outbreak which killed 22 people and sickened many more.
A mid-term report card on the government’s [...]

Tainted meat linked to shortage of inspectors

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 [...]

Few meat inspectors mean more ’shortcuts’

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 [...]

CFIA admits lack of inspections at Maple Leaf plant

By: Sarah Schmidt, Vancouver Sun
OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did not conduct required in-depth audits of the Maple Leaf plant in the year leading up to the deadly listeriosis outbreak last summer.
Quarterly audits were supposed to be done until December 2007 at the Toronto meat plant, but the agency confirmed Sunday that government [...]

CFIA can’t track meat-inspector numbers

By: Sarah Schmidt, The Ottawa Citizen
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency cannot be sure how many meat inspectors are stationed at plants across the country, according to an agency briefing note released to parliamentarians as they begin their investigation into the state of food safety.
The document didn’t sit well with members of the special parliamentary committee, [...]

Food agency can’t count staff

By: Joanna Smith, Toronto Star
OTTAWA–The federal food safety watchdog told a parliamentary committee it does not know how many meat inspectors it employs eight months after a nationwide outbreak of deadly listeriosis bacteria found in ready-to-eat meats.
“Given that there are a number of positions that are multi-purpose, in that they do not focus on one [...]