CANADA: Ottawa vows to make food and consumer products safer

24.oct.07
Canada.com
Carly Weeks

Barfblog

Ottawa -- Health Minister Tony Clement was cited as saying Wednesday that Canada lags behind the rest of the world in its systems for ensuring food and products are safe and the federal government plans to bring in sweeping new measures, from substantial fines to more safety inspectors to bring the country up to speed, adding "In all seriousness, we have fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to some of our enforcement," (that's refreshingly honest -- dp).
The minister said the government is prepared to make major changes to the way it handles food and product safety, including an overhaul of the badly outdated Hazardous Products Act, in order to restore consumer confidence in products coming into the country.
Clement was cited as highlighting the fact the government doesn't have the authority to order a company to remove its products from the marketplace if they present a potential risk. Health Canada can work with the company and advise a recall, but can't actually force a company to take action - something that has to change in order to better protect Canadians, he said.
The story says that in an effort to ease consumers' minds about food and product safety, the federal government has created a new website that will provide details about current recalls and problematic companies.
The site is at www.healthycanadians.gc.ca.