Meat inspection remains dangerously inadequate

Shameful Government spin seeks to hide the facts

OTTAWA, Oct. 22 /CNW/ - Many of the shortcomings that contributed to the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis disaster two years ago continue to plague the Canadian meat inspection system today, according to a new assessment of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's meat hygiene program released today.

The internal assessment found the number of meat inspectors is so inadequate and the workload imposed by a new inspection system (Compliance Verification System or CVS) so great that verification tasks to ensure industry compliance with food safety requirements cannot be completed.  The assessment also found that inspectors remain under-trained, lack modern communications equipment, and continue to struggle with an inspection system (CVS) that lacks enforcement teeth, is unrealistic in its design and is applied in a patchwork across the country.

In addition to the assessment, the government released two other documents which seem designed primarily to obscure the harsh conclusions about the food safety inspection deficit contained in the assessment by frontline inspectors.

"The federal government owes consumers some answers about why these problems have been allowed to persist and how they will be addressed.  Instead, the federal government served up more spin and exaggeration," said Bob Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union - PSAC, which represents federal food inspectors.

The assessment mirrors the findings of Sheila Weatherill, the investigator appointed by the Prime Minister more than two years ago in the wake of the listeriosis outbreak.

Weatherill reported that the Compliance Verification System which was implemented just before the outbreak was flawed and in need of "critical improvements related to its design, planning and implementation".  She also found that the CVS was "implemented without a detailed assessment of the resources available to take on these new (CVS) tasks", and that a shortage of food safety inspectors was in play before the outbreak.

"The CFIA simply does not have the resources it needs to protect Canadians from unsafe food.  Consequently, many of the serious problems Weatherill identified and more remain today," Kingston said.

The assessment of the CFIA's meat hygiene program is based on interviews with 53 front line meat inspectors and supervisors across the country conducted in March and April this year, even though Weatherill called for a much more comprehensive audit of the CVS and the resources required to make it work.

According to the assessment, "several participants commented that, in their experience, there was insufficient staff to ensure full delivery of CVS in all plants."  Assessment participants also report design flaws in CVS: the system does not allow inspectors enough time to complete verification tasks and lacks effective compliance and enforcement tools when food companies violate safety requirements.

For example, under CVS a company can accumulate an unlimited number of Corrective Action Requests, which are issued when an inspector observes a violation of safety requirements, without triggering an in-depth inspection known as a full system audit which would have happened before CVS. 

"Effectively, this means that consumers are eating high risk "ready to eat" foods that have not been adequately inspected, produced in factories that may or may not be meeting safety requirements," Kingston said.

Since the assessment was completed, CFIA has filled some new process meat inspector positions, often with internal candidates, creating new vacancies within the Agency.

"CFIA is making some progress in growing the process meat inspectorate.  But without action to remedy serious design flaws in CVS, and the training and tools deficit identified in the assessment, only marginal progress will be made toward fixing the problems in the meat hygiene program.  And no progress will be made in the inspection deficit which riddles CFIA's other programs," Kingston said.

The staffing shortage is made worse by the absence of modern tools to allow inspectors to do their work efficiently.  While some inspectors have access to laptops and high speed internet connections, others "continued to work primarily with pencil and paper".  Inspectors are further hobbled because they do not have direct access to historical information about companies' food safety records contained in the central CVS database.

"Most inspectors continue to work with stone age tools because CFIA can't afford to equip them with the basics like cell phones and computers.  Considering the time inspectors are forced to waste travelling to a shared computer and transferring data over dial-up connections, it's no wonder they can't complete crucial food safety tasks," Kingston said.

The assessment identified major gaps in CVS training which is widely acknowledged to be delivered most effectively through a combination of intensive classroom education and mentoring of new staff by experienced inspectors.

Yet, according to the assessment, comprehensive training is impossible to deliver because "the frontline inspection staff complement is not deep enough to regularly free up inspectors for learning and development, as one inspector's absence must be covered by a colleague".  The assessment further notes "that the resources required for the mentorship program could not be maintained."

In spite of the assessment finding that online training is inadequate CFIA has recently cancelled all classroom training and development in order to cut costs.

"Clearly, the CFIA remains resource starved and the inspection deficit continues. This is another red flag that the next food borne illness outbreak related to ready to eat meat products could happen at any time because the inspection system is full of holes.  The picture painted in this assessment should make consumers demand immediate action from the federal government to fix this mess before more people suffer needlessly," Kingston said.

Also released with the front line assessment of CVS is an expert panel review of CVS technical requirements and a PriceWaterhouseCoopers review of CVS resource requirements.

The government attributes a glowing conclusion to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers "review" of CVS resource requirements that flatly contradicts what is in the PwC report.  Further, the government again overstates the number of meat inspectors that have or will be hired in flagrant conflict with previous government press releases.

"Instead of fixing the inspection deficit, the federal government continues to hide from its responsibility behind a smokescreen of political spin," Kingston said.

For further information:

Jim Thompson 613-447-9592