Government gets failing grade on food safety from union, consumers' group

February 2, 2010 The 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.

Option Consommateurs, the country's largest consumer organization, and
the union representing the inspectors said the government has yet to
determine how many people it needs to ensure safe food and to figure out
if a new inspection system actually works.

They said the government has yet to act on the key recommendations
produced by a special investigation into the tainted-meat crisis - a
charged denied by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

Ritz said the government has given more resources to the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency and "put more inspectors on the ground than ever
before" since the listeriosis crisis.

The outbreak, traced to contaminated cold cuts from a Maple Leaf Foods
plant, killed 22 people and sickened many more.

Sheila Weatherill, who was appointed to investigate the tragedy, called
for a tough evaluation of the system.

That hasn't happened, the union says.

"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 of
the Public Service Alliance of Canada, representing food inspectors.

Anu Bose of Option Consommateurs said the outbreak shook consumer
confidence in food safety: "The absence of any visible action six months
after the Weatherill report will do nothing to repair this."

However, in an email statement, Ritz said the government "responded
quickly and concretely" to Weatherill's report by "moving forward on all
57 recommendations and immediately investing $75 million to improve
Canada's food safety system."

Weatherill's report, among other things, found that the new inspection
system needed "critical improvements related to its design, planning and
implementation."

It was never properly evaluated, Weatherill found.

The report also said inspectors were overworked.

"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

He said the food-inspection agency hasn't even started work on changes.

"The inspector shortage is as acute as ever and we continue to be
hobbled by an inspection system that is deeply flawed."

With Parliament prorogued, there is little that consumers can do to
pressure the government, he added.

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