Two Ontarians were hospitalized — and another two deaths are being investigated — in relation to a listeria outbreak traced to a Toronto deli meat manufacturer.  [More...]

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 dismal performance was released in Ottawa this morning by the food inspectors union and Canada’s largest consumer organization, Option Consommateurs, giving the federal government a D-.
“Six months after Sheila Weatherill’s report, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency efforts to improve have been hamstrung by the absence of political will and commitment to improve on the part of the federal government,” said Bob Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union – PSAC, which represents food inspectors who work for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

“Consumer confidence in food safety has been shaken to the core.  The absence of any visible action six months after the Weatherill report will do nothing to repair this,” said Option spokesperson Anu Bose.

Almost half of Ms. Weatherill’s recommendations to prevent another outbreak were directed toward the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.  With its mandate to inspect sanitation practices and enforce food safety requirements, the under-resourced CFIA was widely seen as failing to protect Canadian consumers.  Ms. Weatherill established these important findings of facts in her report:

• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) failed to do mandatory safety audits of the Maple Leaf Foods plant which produced the tainted cold cuts for years prior to the outbreak.
• A new inspection system (the Compliance Verification System or CVS) implemented just before the outbreak was flawed and in need of “critical improvements related to its design, planning and implementation”.
• The CVS was “implemented without a detailed assessment of the resources available to take on these new (CVS) tasks”.
• A shortage of food safety inspectors was in play before the outbreak.  “In the lead up to the outbreak the number, capacity and training of inspectors assigned to Bartor Road (the tainted Maple Leaf plant) appear to have been stressed due to their responsibilities at other plants, the complexity of Bartor Road including its size and hours of operation, and necessary adjustments required by the implementation of the CVS.”

“In short, Ms. Weatherill found that there are too few inspectors covering too much territory, hobbled by a new inspection system that never worked properly,” Kingston said.

Weatherill called on the federal government to conduct an audit to determine the number of inspectors required to ensure food companies are complying with food safety requirements, and she recommended an overhaul of the new inspection system – the Compliance Verification System or CVS.

“Six months later, the federal government and the CFIA have yet to begin work on either of these key recommendations.  An audit has not even begun and the CVS remains unevaluated.  The inspector shortage is as acute as ever and we continue to be hobbled by an inspection system that is deeply flawed,” Kingston said.

According to the report card, the federal government and the CFIA have not begun to act on the vast majority of recommendations aimed at improving food safety inspection and enforcement.

“With Parliament prorogued, there is little that consumers can do to hold the government to account for this dismal performance,” said Kingston, who pointed out that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz warned a few months ago that little progress on food safety improvements are possible if the opposition provoked the dissolution of Parliament.

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For information:

Jim Thompson 613-447-9592

Inspector shortage compromising food safety

Ottawa – Many of Sheila Weatherill’s recommendations make a constructive and valuable contribution to improving the safety of food in Canada and should be implemented immediately, even though it appears that the CFIA and others in government have either withheld information or misled her, according to the union representing federal food inspectors.

“It is stunning that the investigation was unable to determine the level of inspection resources at CFIA, even though she interviewed President Swan, Minister Ritz and others,” said Bob Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union – PSAC.

The parliamentary committee on food safety heard that inspectors were “grossly understaffed” during the period leading up to last summer’s outbreak.  According to the latest staffing levels assembled by the Union, federal meat inspectors continue to have an unmanageable workload which averages between 4 and 5 facilities per inspector.

Ms. Weatherill fails to call on the Prime Minister to address the shortage of inspectors and the inadequate level of inspection oversight.

“If the government fails to commit the financial resources to adequately staff food inspection, this report will be meaningless,” said Patty Ducharme, National Executive Vice-President.

According to senior management, CFIA was under political direction to keep a low profile during the height of the outbreak last fall and during the general election.  Ms. Weatherill’s report fails to call the government to task on this matter.

Ms. Weatherill is highly critical of CFIA’s new approach to food inspection known as the Compliance Verification System (CVS), declaring it “needs critical improvements related to its design, planning and implementation”.

“Ms. Weatherill condemns CVS as a hastily developed and implemented system that has yet to undergo a proper scientific evaluation,” according to Kingston.

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For information: Jim Thompson 613-447-9592

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 found health authorities lost precious time warning the public because they were immersed in confusion and “turf wars.”

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who quickly dismissed calls for a public inquiry yesterday, did not respond to an interview request.

Critics agreed with the parliamentary food safety subcommittee that a public inquiry is needed.

“There have always been inquiries when there have been serious crises in public health,” said Amir Attaran, professor in the faculty of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa.

“We’ve had it for tainted blood. We had it for Walkerton. We had it for SARS. We’re obviously going to need it for listeriosis. But Parliament so far has not managed to push the Conservatives to do that.”

In a dissenting report yesterday, Conservatives on the subcommittee issued their own set of recommendations, none of which mention a public inquiry.

Instead of a public inquiry, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced last fall an independent investigation led by Sheila Weatherill. Her report is to be completed by next month.

Critics dismiss the $2.7 million investigation for being conducted behind closed doors without the authority to compel testimony or documents.

“Weatherill’s investigation is about sweeping it under the rug and not holding anyone responsible,” said Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter, a food safety subcommittee member. “Twenty-two people died here. A public inquiry needs to get at the issue of responsibility.”

Parliamentarians from all political stripes agreed infighting between health authorities delayed listeria alarm bells.

Although Toronto public health officials first noticed a spike in cases in mid-July of last year, Canadians weren’t warned about the risk until mid-August as people began dying.

“The (various health) agencies did not have a consistent approach to public notification,” said Toronto medical officer of health Dr. David McKeown. “It wasn’t clear that people were being guided by the plans that had been made.”

While the report doesn’t speculate how much earlier Canadians should have been warned, it suggests health authorities increased the risk to consumers by pointing fingers rather than blowing whistles.

Officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Ontario Ministry of Health said they were reviewing the report and its recommendations.

© Toronto Star

Following two months of public hearings, the parliamentary food safety committee expressed concern about the inspector shortage and CFIA’s inability to accurately report on the number of meat inspectors and how much time they devote to hands-on inspection activities.

As a result, the committee called on the federal government to “undertake a comprehensive review of the resources, including training, that Canadian Food Inspection Agency needs to properly implement, execute and enforce all food inspection activities and that the government make that review public”.

“I hope Minister Ritz acts without delay to implement this recommendation.  It is an essential first step to address the inspector shortage that is undermining food safety and consumer confidence,” says Bob Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union – PSAC.

The committee also called on the CFIA to co-operate with the Agriculture Union to “find the means and technology such that they can provide accurate, real-time evaluation of inspector resources”.

“Minister Ritz and his cabinet colleagues have every right to accurate and timely information they need to make informed spending decisions.  CFIA failed to meet this expectation,” Kingston said.

For example, Minister Ritz has publicly stated that 58 new meat inspectors had been hired in 2009, only to be contradicted later by the CFIA which wrote to the food safety committee that “Of these 57 full time resources or FTEs, none are dedicated to meat inspection”.

The committee’s concern about inspection resources was the result of compelling evidence and testimony:

• Don Irons, a meat inspection supervisor responsible for the Maple Leaf facility in Toronto whose product killed 22 Canadians last year, testified that “…we were grossly resourced, starved…” in the months prior to the outbreak.

When asked if anything has changed, does he now have the resources needed to ensure the food we eat is safe, Mr. Irons replied “no, I do not”.

• A CFIA briefing note to the Minister declared the “Inspection program (is) experiencing workload challenges in meeting delivery requirements”.
• Inspectors at the Maple Leaf Foods Bartor Rd. plant spent as little as 15 minutes a day at the plant according to timesheets released by the CFIA.
• Most inspectors are unable to verify that food companies are complying with safety requirements because they have too many facilities to inspect.

The Agriculture Union welcomes the CFIA’s new listeria policy and agrees with the Conservative MPs on the committee that it is important that CFIA inspectors conduct their own testing for the presence of bacteria in the environment of food factories, but cautions these new duties must be accompanied by new inspection personnel to carry them out.

The committee also recommended measures to restore some transparency to the food industry by calling for a return to the practice of making public meat establishment audits reports that were killed in 2006.  This recommendation is supported by the Agriculture Union.

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For information: Jim Thompson 613-447-9592

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. 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. (Maple Leaf Foods Inc./Canadian Press)It is one of a dozen recommendations in a House of Commons agriculture committee report released Thursday. It also features a dissenting report from the committee’s Conservative members.

During committee hearings, opposition MPs questioned whether the Canadian Food Inspection Agency realized the severity of the crisis and acted soon enough to stem the outbreak, which led to the deaths of 22 people and made hundreds of others sick after they ate contaminated deli meats from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.

The committee’s opposition members said they are left with many questions over how many food safety inspectors actually work in Canadian food plants.

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett said a public inquiry is needed not only to find out what happened, but also to “map a way forward” so Canadians “will once again have confidence that their food system is the best in the world.”

It is also necessary, she said, to show those who lost loved ones that public officials “learned the lesson” from the crisis and that other Canadian families will never face the same risks.

The committee report also recommends:

* Food safety standards in provincial and federal food plants be harmonized.

* The federal government set up an ongoing review of Canada’s food safety standards to ensure up-to-date food safety and processing technologies, and new scientific evidence be included in all risk assessments.

* Ottawa review the training and resources CFIA inspectors need to “implement, execute and enforce” all food inspection activities, and make the results of the review public.

* Canada work more closely with the United States on food-safety standards.

* The CFIA, in co-operation with the food safety inspectors union, work to provide “accurate, real-time evaluation” of inspectors’ resources.

The Conservatives said they will await the findings of independent investigator Sheila Weatherill, who was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to probe the crisis. Weatherill is due to present her findings to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz next month.

Among the Tories’ recommendations is a call for a review of the “compliance verification system,” a self-policing auditing system that allows companies to inspect themselves while the CFIA inspectors review the company’s paperwork.

Briefing notes tabled before the committee cast doubt on the Conservative government’s claims that it has hired 58 additional food inspectors this year, as it was determined that none of the newly hired inspectors actually works in meat-processing plants, the CBC’s David McKie, who has been investigating the listeriosis outbreak, said Thursday.

Bob Kingston, president of Agriculture Union — PSAC, which represents government food inspectors, praised the committee’s report and called on Ritz to implement its recommendations as quickly as possible.

He said the CFIA had failed to meet the expectation of providing Ritz and the cabinet “accurate and timely” information on inspector resources.

“It is an essential first step to address the inspector shortage that is undermining food safety and consumer confidence,” Kingston said in a release Thursday.

The CFIA has defended its performance during the outbreak and said it has already brought in new measures in the wake of its own and other investigations into the crisis.

In a statement Thursday, Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, called the report “comprehensive” and said it provides “clear direction for further improvements, and we will be full participants in that process.”

“As a result of our responsibility for the listeria tragedy we had to improve, we did, and we will continuously,” McCain said.

McCain also said he supports a “consistent and enforced” national inspection standard and insisted the “patchwork” of existing regulatory regimes cannot continue.

© CBC

The work you are about to undertake is critical to the safety of all Canadians. That’s why it’s important for you to know the unvarnished truth about the food safety inspection capacity shortfall at the CFIA.

When it comes to delivering the legally required oversight of Canada’s meat and food safety systems, it’s mission impossible for CFIA. The Agency simply does not have the resources to do the job Canadians expect and the CFIA’s own policies demand.

Food safety oversight will only get weaker and the risks to Canadians higher without decisive action from your committee. Consider:

• CFIA does not have an emergency fund to deal with outbreaks of food or animal-borne illnesses that are not declared as national emergencies. For the first time, CFIA is setting aside existing resources for this purpose. Sources within CFIA estimate this will result in a 10 – 15% reduction in CFIA operational budgets. This will likely delay and/or cancel plans to hire additional food inspectors, reduce industry oversight and increase risk of an emergency outbreak.
• CFIA rarely conducts Full Systems Audits of federally registered meat establishments even though this was a mandatory annual requirement until April 2008. The inspector shortage has derailed these extensive audits because they require several CFIA staff for up to five days at a time. These audits require resources the CFIA simply does not have. For example, all Full Systems Audits require a senior CFIA inspector to lead the audit. In all of Western Canada, only one CFIA staff person is qualified to fill this role.
• It’s important to note that the Maple Leaf facility, which was the source of the listeriosis outbreak last summer, was not subject to a Full Systems Audit for at least a year prior to the outbreak.
• Inspectors responsible for more than two Ready-to-Eat (RTE) meat plants do not have enough time to verify that RTE facilities under his/her oversight complying with food safety requirements, according to the following analysis of required food safety tasks.
• Yet, most RTE inspectors are responsible for three or more facilities. The inspector at the contaminated Maple Leaf plant in Toronto was responsible for seven facilities at the time of the listeriosis outbreak.

Annual Hours Required to Complete Food Safety
Inspection Tasks per RTE Facility

• The tasks and time requirements outlined above do not take into account:
  • Import/Export Requirements
    Inspectors are expected to place a priority on meat import/export inspection. This function conservatively accounts for 200 hours/year.
  • Travel
    While travel time can vary considerably, RTE facilities tend to be located in large urban centres like Toronto and Montreal where travel through metropolitan traffic can consume a considerable portion of the day and can account for hundreds of hours a year.
  • Leave
    Just like other employees, most inspectors take holidays. The typical processed meat inspector is entitled to at least 4 weeks annual leave or 150 hours a year. In addition, sick, training and other forms of eave take inspectors off the job for a period of time every year.
  • Enforcement
    It’s difficult to quantify the average time inspectors spend on enforcement actions but it can be significant.
  • Other
    We estimate inspectors spend dozens of hours every year completing tasks related to the CFIA’s own Quality Management System and Canada Labour Code health and safety requirements.
• When you add it all up, the CFIA simply does not have enough inspectors to ensure RTE meat producers are in compliance with food safety protocols.
• Faced with budget constraints the CFIA has taken a variety of cost cutting measures such as banning overtime before last summer’s tragedy. As a result, CFIA inspectors were unable to verify that pre-operation and sanitation inspections at Ready-to-Eat meat processing plants in Ontario and Quebec were properly conducted by plant employees, including at the Maple Leaf plant that was the source of the contaminated product.
• Prior to the introduction of HACCP in November 2005, pre-operation and sanitation inspections were conducted by CFIA inspectors and often resulted in orders to disassemble slicing equipment for cleaning.

These are some of the symptoms of the critical budget shortfall at the CFIA which undermines the safety of the food Canadians eat.

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For more information, please contact:

Jim Thompson
613-567-9592