Food safety

Beef recall means Canada must rebuild bridges with key global trading partners

Topics: 
Food industry, Food safety, Alberta
Rating: 
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Jamie Komarnicki and Annalise Klingbeil – October 8, 2012

As Alberta’s beef reputation takes a clipping on the international stage — with grocery stores as far away as Hong Kong removing XL Foods product from their shelves — Canadian regulators must take steps to “ensure a state of calm” remains in place in global markets that import Alberta beef, an expert says.

The massive beef recall of products from the XL Foods plant expanded over the weekend, as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued further notices adding dozens of meat cuts and stores in B.C. to its long list.

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

Topics: 
Food industry, Food safety, Regulatory oversight, CFIA
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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
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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
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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.”

Can meat factories be safe, at 4,000 cows a day, 3,000 steaks a minute?

Topics: 
Food industry, Food safety
Rating: 
5

Josh Wingrove, The Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012

You have 35 seconds: Gut the cow without damaging its organs, and be sure not to drop the stomach on the floor. Do not cut yourself with the swift-moving blade; do not touch the scalding sanitary surfaces. Then, walk in hot water to clean your white rubber boots. Swap your knife out and start over again. Again and again.

This is life on the production line at the Lakeside slaughterhouse in Brooks, Alta., one of the three largest such facilities in Canada that, together, dominate the market. Owned by XL Foods, Lakeside slaughters 4,000 cows on a full day, cutting them into about two million pounds of beef. That’s the equivalent of 3,000 steaks a minute. Plants like this are the reality of modern mass food production, and federal inspectors set up shop right on the production line. It’s safer, some say, than mom-and-pop abattoirs scattered across the country.

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.

B.C. slaughterhouses not testing for pathogens

Topics: 
Food safety, Regulatory oversight
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Wendy Stueck – October 2, 2012

Provincially licensed slaughterhouses in B.C. should consider adding tests for pathogens such as E. coli or listeria to their inspection regimes, says a food safety specialist at the University of British Columbia.

“This is a significant issue,” Kevin Allen, an assistant professor of food microbiology at UBC, said in an interview Tuesday. “We now have 10 or more cases of food-borne disease linked to [an outbreak at Alberta’s XL Foods,]” he said. The outbreak has made several people ill and resulted in a massive recall of beef products.

GM corn linked to early death in new study

Topics: 
Food safety, Monsanto, Genetically modified organisms
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Sarah Schmidt – September 21, 2012

Health Canada said Thursday it will take action if its review of a new study that found Canadian-grown genetically modified corn is linked to elevated risks of cancer, organ damage and premature death in rats "demonstrate a risk" to Canadians.

The first GM food safety study to test the entire lifespan of laboratory rats, newly published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, also found health impacts for rats exposed to Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, the widest selling herbicide in the world.

U.S. missiles infected with Chinese fakes

Topics: 
Food safety, China, National security, Defence industry, Consumer safety
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F. Michael Maloof – June 3, 2012

Fake electronic components from China have been discovered in thermal weapons sights delivered to the U.S. Army on mission computers for the Missile Defense Agency’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missiles and on military aircraft, including several models of helicopters and the P-8A-Poseidon, according to federal investigators.

Suspected electronic parts were found in the Forward Looking InfraRed, or FLIR, Systems being used on the Navy’s SH-60-B. The counterfeit parts were delivered by Raytheon, which alerted the Navy.

Inside look at another type of meat glue

Topics: 
Food safety, USA, Food industry
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ABC7 I-Team – May 21, 2012

The I-Team has uncovered more on the growing controversy over meat glue. It's a product that binds bits and pieces of meat together to look like whole steaks.

Now, the ABC7 I-Team looks at how one Midwestern company is helping processors re-make vats of meat they call unsellable into steaks for restaurant tables. This is one reality in the meat industry.

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