Steve

Buying organic is not necessarily going to be a safer option either. There are two major reasons why: 1: The CFIA is currently getting out of the role of meat inspection in the Provinces of BC, SK, and MB. They are turning the role of inspecting meat for the Canadian market over to the Provinces. The Provinces do not have 30+ years of experience in this capacity and would not likely be able to do as good of a job at this task. So consumers in these provinces are likely going to be consuming lower quality meat, including organic meat which has also been inspected by CFIA in the past. Surely these Provinces are just the start (a pilot) and others will follow suit. The Conservative Government has made it clear that the CFIA does not want to assure Quality for food in Canada. They do not see meat quality as a federal government responsibility, including organic meat. Interesting to note, in these provinces the CFIA will maintain a presence at Federal Plants which export meat. So basically, they are saying that it is important to make sure our trading partners get meat which meet Federal Standards, but Canadian people are not important enough to get the same standard. Thanks CFIA! 2: The CFIA has just announced that they plan to drop the role of making sure that certain food labels are correct. This combined with their new approach of moving away quality assurance for Canadians, there is nothing to say that buying organic meat will mean you are actually getting organic meat. If the CFIA keeps cuts like this up, soon enough a company will be able to label any meat as organic. It will still be illegal, but there will be nobody to enforce the labelling requirements. The conservatives use the terms "tough economic times" to justify every choice they make. Even when their choice is to cut things such as food safety, and even the budget for the justice system. These are things which Canadians value, but the Conservatives don't care about Canadians, they only care about Big Business.

Posted April 5, 2012 09:30 PM

Mr. Ajoy Daspurkayastha

MAJORLY FOOD/MEAT SCIENCE ILLITERATES ARE RUNNING THE FOOD /MEAT FACTORIES IN CANADA AMIDST BIZARRE FOOD SAFETY CULTURE DOCTORED BY FOOD/MEAT PROCESSING UNITS. Johanna Öhling Executive Director joehling@fphrc.ca The Food Processing Human Resources Council (804 – 130 Albert Street Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G4 Phone: 613-237-7988 Toll Free: 1-877-96FPHRC (963-7472) Fax: 613-237 And Mr. Michael McCain President Maple Leaf Foods Toronto, Sunday, 25th March, 2012 Dear Johanna Öhling, A Hospital cannot function without a doctor so also a Food Company cannot properly function without food doctor (food science/food tech / food safety personnel).A road safety Cop ask driver’s licence when he/she stops an earring/defiant vehicle as because the road safety cop believes by heart and soul that to drive a vehicle it requires a recognised qualifications like “Driver’s liscence”. On the other hand , a food safety Cop(CFIA Rep.) as it stands today never believe that proper and recognised qualifications are required to drive the matters of food safety on behalf of the company to protect the public health and safety. Food safety Cop (CFIA Rep.) has nothing to ask/check about the qualifications of the food safety drivers as because no such legislation exists in Canada. This bizarre food safety culture in Canada should change to protect the public health and safety otherwise such type of food/meat (beef) recall will keep on happening and it will never be an utter surprise whereas it will become a normal affair so to say but the Canada will definitely loose in billions of dollars in terms of food export since the very frequent food recalls are being watched by the Canadian food importers all over the world equally as like that of Canadian food/meat consumers. One very good example is South Africa’s recent threat to move the W.T.O.(World Trade Organization) against Canada with respect to quality and food safety aspects of Canadian pork which at present is an extremely pressing trade concern before the Canadian food safety stalwarts. There are obviously many at alarming numbers food/meat companies in Canada where the HACCP/QA personnel are food science/food tech/food safety illiterates and never studied food microbiology at a college/university level in their lifetime. And this is totally unacceptable by any standard which is anti-codex and anti to recommendations pertaining to whitherill report after 23 Canadians faced dead due to listeria outbreak. In order to protect the public health and safety, the moral and ethical responsibility reels on the head of the Food Processing Human Resources Council), Ottawa to work in close co-operations of the all the HODs (Head of the Departments) of all the food science (Canada is the only G8 country in the world where there is not a single college or, university who offers Bachelor’s degree in Food Technology) colleges/universities in all the provinces of Canada and make a “National Database of the persons residing in Canada and having degree/diploma in food science/food technology/food safety and quality assurance” and inform all the food/meat factories of Canada that they should/must(once it is made mandatory by the law of the land to have it so.) employ food science/food technology/food safety and quality assurance degree/diploma graduates as food safety drivers of their respective companies to protect the public health and safety. The FPHRC (Food Processing Human Resources Council), Ottawa works towards “Strengthening the HR knowledge to optimize the competitiveness of the Canadian food processing industry.”and “To lead, support and provide a collective knowledgeable response to human resources challenges and to maximize opportunities for the food processing industry.” It is quite surprising how it was necessary to conduct a 6 Hours examination as Telecommunication inspector to get recruited as Food Processing Specialist Inspector? Referring to CFIA’s the selection process of 10-ICA-ON-OE-VAR-SOUTH-617 (Food Processing Specialist Inspector EG-04): Canadian food business and food safety related hazard prone food business insurance fraternity and to food science/food safety / veterinary students/researchers/Professors : Why you think it is not an injustice as in the name of satisfying SEI(Simulation Exercise for Inspectors), my exhibited about 6 hours knowledge-test (more than 3 times duration than the subject matter test for food processing)on 18th August,2010 at CFIA's Finch-office as “Telecommunication inspector(Quebec circle) is/was a must (obligatory)for the recruitment as Food Processing Specialist Inspector at CFIA.”. It is not just the very beef recall comprising 135 brands which is alarming us now throwing the New Food Classics (Establishment 761) massive 550 ton beef recall to bankruptcy that processed ground beef between July 1, 2011 and Feb. 15, 2012 as because it may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 but obviously the above said bizarre food safety culture haunt us head to toe since the public health and safety of great importance gets compromised and Canada’s food export earnings lands in jeopardy. With this, most humbly, I give a clarion call, to the most respected audience under intimation to the Honourable Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Stephen Harper, Mr. Gerry Ritz , Honourable Minister of Agriculture , Hon. Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health and Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency ,Dr. Brian Evans , Chief Food Safety Officer of Canada cum Vice-President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency cum Chief Veterinary Officer of Canada , Dr. Charles Powell, President of Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology , Dr. David Butler Jones , Chief Public Health Officer of Canada , Dr. Ronald DÖring ,Ex-President CFIA and Mr. Michael McCain President Maple Leaf Foods to do the needful. Always with best regards, Mr. Ajoy Kumar Daspurkayastha, BSc (Agri) Hons. MSc (Food Tech) GDIP (FSQA) CIFST (Canada) Professional Food Technologist cum Food Safety Specialist THE GREATEST ADMIRER AND WELL WISHER OF THE LATE DR BINAY RANJAN SEN , WHO WAS THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION, ROME BETWEEN 1956 TO 1967 AND DURING WHOSE FAO DIRECTOR GENERALSHIP, THE CODEX(THE UNIVERSAL FOOD LAW) WAS INTRODUCED IN THE YEAR 1963. 2645 Kipling Avenue Suite#206 Toronto Ontario M9V 3S6 Canada Res tel: 416 743 644 , 647 847 6825 Cell: 416 880 9102 E-mail: ajoy@sympatico.ca , foodtechfoodsafetyxpert@gmail.com

Posted April 2, 2012 12:38 AM

sharon

". . . Ottawa should worry about undermining public confidence with food safety cuts because that will be bad for the industry," union president Bob Kingston said. My family has not eaten Maple Leaf brands for years now. With the gov't no longer inspecting meat until trouble shows up means that the public must guess at safe products. As a result, I am going for certified organic products only. I cannot trust the agribusiness anymore. My farming relatives in Alberta are having an epiphany - finally they did their financial computations and figure they're better off going the old ways rather than all the equipment, fertilizers, seeds from afar route. And they will have better soil, too. I will buy from them if they can go organic. What a shame that this government is deregulating in all the wrong places.

Posted March 12, 2012 05:07 PM