CFIA

Review to examine E. coli outbreak, beef recall

Topics: 
Food safety, CFIA, Regulatory oversight
Rating: 
3

The Canadian Press – February 9, 2013

The federal government has launched a review of the E. coli outbreak last fall that sickened 18 people and led to the largest beef recall in Canadian history.

The review is to focus on what contributed to the outbreak of the potentially deadly bacteria at the XL Foods Inc. plant in Brooks, Alta. It will also look at how well the Canadian Food Inspection Agency performed, including why tainted meat was distributed to retailers and sold to consumers.

E. coli strain blamed for five illnesses matched to burgers recalled across Canada

Topics: 
Food safety, CFIA
Rating: 
3

December 17, 2012

Government inspectors have linked Canada’s latest E. coli outbreak to a recalled batch of Butcher’s Choice brand beef burgers sold across the country. The strain of E. coli bacteria found in Butcher’s Choice Garlic Peppercorn Beef Burgers was the same one that made five people sick in Ontario and Alberta, officials told a news conference Monday.

“All of this product was recalled from the marketplace between Dec. 12 and Dec. 15,” said Paul Mayers, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s vice-president of programs. The frozen burgers are sold at Loblaws stores across Canada.

Alberta meat packer shut over incorrect information on potentially tainted food

Topics: 
Alberta, Food safety, Food industry, CFIA
Rating: 
4
The following are selected extracts

John Cotter – November 23, 2012

Canada’s food safety regulator says it suspended an Alberta meat packer’s operating licence because the company gave wrong information about a product that could contain potentially dangerous bacteria.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency shut down Edmonton-based Capital Packers on Thursday and announced the company was recalling two brands of ham sausages. The agency said when a test for Listeria on a worker’s clothing came back positive on Monday, the company said none of the sausages had been distributed to retailers.

Federal meat inspectors at XL Foods plant told to 'ignore' contamination

Topics: 
CFIA, Food safety, Regulatory oversight
Rating: 
4
The following are selected extracts

Renata D'Aliesio and Jill Mahoney – November 29, 2012

Canada’s food-inspection agency is rejecting claims of a two-tier safety system, contending beef destined for Canadian dinner plates receives the same scrutiny as meat exported to Japan.

The union representing federal inspectors had raised concerns about the handling of cattle carcasses at the embattled XL Foods beef-processing plant in meetings last month with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) brass.

Beef Plant Reopens Very, Very Carefully

Topics: 
Food industry, Food safety, CFIA
Rating: 
0

Alex Binkley – October 23, 2012

Federal inspectors pledge to lay on extra “surveillance” of processing at a Brooks, Alta. slaughterhouse now reopened following the nation’s largest beef recall.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Oct. 23 that XL Foods, closed since September 27, “will be allowed to progressively resume slaughter and processing operations under enhanced CFIA surveillance and increased testing protocols.”

Whistleblowers can help prevent future food fiascos

Topics: 
Food safety, Legislation, Alberta, PSIC, Integrity Commissioner, CFIA
Rating: 
5

David Hutton – October 16, 2012

The first thing to understand about the XL Foods recall is that it was almost certainly preventable. As in all such incidents, those responsible would have us believe it was some kind of fluke, unforeseeable and beyond human control. This is unlikely.

The systems used to protect food safety in modern facilities work superbly when properly implemented. They are based upon Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), a system devised by NASA to safeguard the food of its astronauts.

CFIA shouldn’t report to agriculture minister, former senior bureaucrat says

Topics: 
Food industry, Food safety, Regulatory oversight, CFIA
Rating: 
0

Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen – October 5, 2012

The health and safety of Canada’s food supply shouldn’t be in the hands of a regulator that answers to a minister beholden to the agriculture industry and farmers, says a longtime deputy minister.

The political firestorm over the massive recall of tainted meat has reopened an accountability debate that raged 15 years ago when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was created and the agriculture industry and farmers successfully convinced the government that the regulator should report to the minister of agriculture, not the minister of health, said Alan Nymark, who has been a strong advocate for “regulatory responsibility.”

Powell says XL to blame

Topics: 
Food industry, Food safety, Regulatory oversight, CFIA
Rating: 
0

Jim Romahn – October 3, 2012

Dr. Doug Powell, the first person to gain a doctorate degree in food safety communications, is airing evidence that XL Foods Inc. and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency both erred in dealing with contamination of beef with E. coli 0157:H7.

And he points to a report about Salmonella Typherium and Salmonella Newport from a 500-acre farm in Illinois this summer as an example of how inspections and food-safety audits do little good if those who are in charge fail to take prompt action.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz faces onslaught over his approach to tainted beef

Topics: 
Food safety, Food industry, Regulatory oversight, CFIA
Rating: 
0

Sarah Schmidt – October 4, 2012

When the opposition asked Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz about the sweeping beef recall last week, the veteran minister stood up in the House of Commons to declare that no illnesses had been linked to the virulent strain of E. coli found in meat from XL Foods Inc.

“We have actually done a tremendous job,” Ritz told the NDP’s deputy agriculture critic Ruth Ellen Brosseau at the time, saying he was in daily communication with officials at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency about the “status of this recall and on the work forward to get back into that lucrative American market.”

Meat industry whistleblower says problems persist

Topics: 
Food industry, Food safety, Regulatory oversight, CFIA, Whistleblowers
Rating: 
5
Daniel Land

 Mi-Jung Lee, CTV British Columbia – October 5, 2012

A former meat plant worker who detected E. coli at a B.C. facility says the same concerns he raised two years ago are still plaguing Canada’s food safety system. Daniel Land, who worked as a quality assurance inspector for Pitt Meadows Meats, is slamming the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for not reacting quickly enough to the E.coli findings in early September.

Two years ago Land was in charge of testing meat for E. coli. He says when he received a positive test result, he immediately told his bosses. The company did not notify CFIA, despite the regulations requiring them to do so. The company fired Land and tells CTV it was because of his inability to get along with co-workers.

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