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Ottawa — Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s appearance before the Agriculture Committee this afternoon will be an opportunity for the Minister to set the record straight on inspection of ready-to-eat meats produced for Canadian consumers.

On Monday, the Minister misinformed the House of Commons.  He said that plants that make ready-to-eat meat exclusively for consumption by Canadians consumers is inspected on the same frequency as plants that produce for the US market.

“The inspection rate for domestic consumption, as well as for international trade, is exactly the same. It works on a 12-hour cycle,” Mr. Ritz said.

In fact, the CFIA practices two separate inspection frequencies for plants that produce ready-to-eat meat products:

• Plants that ship to the US are subject to a “daily inspection presence” requirement.  This is a standard set by the USDA which defines daily presence as once every 12 hours of production.  Until recently, the CFIA required a meat inspector to visit a meat processing facility licenced for export to the US once a day.  In November last year, the CFIA moved to close this standards gap after the USDA objected.
• Plants that produce only for domestic consumption are normally subject to an inspector’s presence only once a week.  This frequency of inspection for plants producing only for the Canadian market has not changed even since CFIA began inspecting to the USDA’s 12 hour requirement in November 2009.

Today’s appearance before the Agriculture Committee will also be an opportunity for the Minister to explain:

• Why the CFIA has failed to complete an audit of the controversial new meat inspection system called the Compliance Verification System or CVS eight months after Sheila Weatherill found the CVS was “implemented without a detailed assessment of the resources available to take on these new (CVS) tasks”.  Minister Ritz promised this review would be done months ago.
• Why nothing changed when it comes to the number of ready-to-eat meat processing plants inspectors are responsible for.  Pre-Maple Leaf, each inspector was responsible for an average of 4 – 5 plants.  The ratio remains the same today even though it means that the food inspection system is stretched so thin that inspectors don’t have enough time to do their jobs properly.
• Why no additional food inspectors have been added to the CFIA front lines almost two years after the Maple Leaf outbreak and 8 months after the Weatherill report.

In response to the inspection deficit, the federal government has given more responsibility to the food industry to police its own safety practices with less direct supervision from government inspectors.  The government’s approach may be changing, however.

Yesterday, Transport Minister John Baird said: it’s simply wrong for industry to regulate itself.”

Does Minister Ritz agree with his colleague?

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For information: Jim Thompson 613-447-9592

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