Canadian families should come before American exports: Allen

OTTAWA – A dangerous gap between U.S. and Canadian food inspection practices highlights the Conservatives’ failure to fix Canada’s food safety system, says New Democrat Food Safety Critic Malcolm Allen (Welland).

Plants packaging meat for the U.S. market are inspected daily in order to meet U.S. standards, while plants that package meat for Canadian dinner tables are inspected only once a week.

“This double standard is unacceptable. Canadian lives are not worth less than American lives, and exports should not be more important than the safety of Canadian families,” said Allen.

The government recently increased inspections at U.S.-bound meat processing plants to every 12 hours after the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service determined that Canadian food inspections failed to meet U.S. safety standards, putting the export market in jeopardy.

Existing CFIA food inspectors are being worked overtime to make up the gap. While the government promised 70 new inspectors in September 2009, CFIA lacks enough inspectors to meet the increased requirement. According to the meat inspectors’ union, no additional inspectors have actually joined the front lines of food inspection.

“The government was quick to respond to a threat to U.S. food safety, but has yet to ramp up Canadian inspections to match, and still hasn’t hired enough inspectors to do the job,” said Allen. “It’s been two years since the listeriosis crisis, and eight months since the Weatherill report told the government how to fix the system. Why is it taking them so long to act?”

Investigators are probing an unusual number of listeriosis cases, including five deaths in Ontario this year. Two illnesses have recently been linked to a listeriosis recall of Siena brand deli meats.

“Deli sandwiches and kids’ lunches should not be a source of fear,” Allen said. “The government must start treating Canadian food safety as a priority.”