Cuts raise concerns
Inspectors union says fewer staff may be behind frozen chicken recall
Months after federal inspectors say critical food safety checks were quietly cut at meat processors in Alberta, one of the province’s largest plants is having to recall frozen chicken breasts that may be tainted with potentially fatal listeria.
A Canadian Food Inspection Agency investigation at a Lilydale Inc. facility has yet to determine how the contaminated product ended up on store shelves across the country. However, inspectors union president Bob Kingston said he’s worried a recent reduction in the frequency of sanitation oversight at the Edmonton plant may be to blame.
“It may be a coincidence,” said Kingston, “but there’s no denying the agency has been rolling the dice on food safety and hoping the health of Canadians won’t be compromised.”
The union says the agency told staff to cut general sanitation inspection activities by 50 per cent and pre- operation inspections by 30 per cent at plants in northern Alberta starting in early January, as the agency struggled with a $ 43.3- million reduction in its food safety budget this year.
A heavily redacted document — written by CFIA’s regional head and released by the agency in response to an access to information request — reveals a 12 per cent budget cut by the Conservative government was behind the reduced checks.
“In an eff ort to ensure we live within our resources, we need to be smart about deciding what work we will do now, what we will defer and what we won’t do at all,” chief inspector Craig Price said in the internal document.
“Inspectors have been advised that these types of decisions are not for them to make as individual contributors — the risk of these decisions is for ( regional management).”
CFIA did not contradict Kingston’s contention that only 12 of the 18 meat hygiene inspection positions in northern Alberta are fi lled because the cash- strapped agency has frozen hiring and deferred training until the next fi scal year.
But a prepared statement from the agency said staff numbers nationwide can vary by as much as fi ve per cent or 200 personnel during the year due to changes in demand for service, such as the opening and closing of plants.
“Inspection work focuses on areas of highest risk fi rst ( and) the areas of focus may change during the year based on emergencies and shifting priorities,” the statement said.
“As these decisions are made ... the overall health and safety of our food system is always top of mind.”
Lilydale recalled some 400- gram packages of its oven roasted carved chicken breast last week as a “precautionary measure” because it might be tainted with Listeria monocytogenes, a virulent pathogen that causes death in up to 30 per cent of infections.
Company spokeswoman Stephanie Gillis- Paulgaard did not respond to Herald questions about what triggered the recall or whether CFIA inspectors were present in the plant the day the suspect product was made.
An Alberta inspector — whom the Herald agreed not to identify because he could be fi red for speaking to the media — said he’s troubled by the fact the cuts mean plants like Lilydale that process meat destined only for Canadian dinner tables are receiving less oversight than those that are also authorized to export to the United States.
For plants sending product south of the border, he said American standards require CFIA to have inspectors there every day, but those which supply only the domestic market are now visited only three days a week.
“Meat inspection is kind of like traffi c enforcement,” the inspector said. “Just like there’s a natural tendency to speed if you know there’s no police around, plants are more apt to cut corners if they know we’re not going to show up.”
Health Minister Rona Ambrose declined to be interviewed Tuesday, but in a prepared statement she fi red back at the meat inspectors.
“These union allegations are misleading, and it is unfortunate they would play politics with food safety,” Ambrose said.
Under opposition attack in the House of Commons, her parliamentary secretary Cathy Macleod said the government’s 2014 budget provided funding for 200 new inspectors.
However, CFIA’s own reports show that this year the agency cut over 350 food safety positions and that it plans to eliminate another 192 personnel in 2016- 17.
The union’s concerns about reduced inspector numbers and plant oversight come nearly eight years after 22 people died and dozens more fell sick after eating listeria- laced cold cuts made by Maple Leaf Foods.
A subsequent investigation into the outbreak led by Alberta health executive Sheila Weatherill found the agency’s inspection system failed to provide adequate oversight of sanitation procedures for machinery at the plant that was the root source of the contamination.
New Democrat critic Malcolm Allen said CFIA has never done the audit recommended by Weatherill to determine what inspector numbers are needed to keep Canadian’s food safe.
“When you don’t know how many you need, how do you know if you have enough?” Allen asked.
While the inspector shortage is especially acute in the northern half of the province, a recent union survey found plants in southern Alberta — including Canada’s two largest beef slaughter facilities — are also aff ected by the agency’s budget crunch.
At Cargill Foods in High River, only 35 of the 50 meat inspector positions are currently staff ed.
The facility in Brooks operates with as few as nine inspectors a shift instead of its full complement of 14, the survey found. It was less than three years ago that the plant was shuttered by the country’s largest beef recall after a clogged carcass pasteurizer went undetected by both CFIA and plant workers.
Dr. Ronald Lewis, who headed the independent review into the 2012 recall, said he was concerned the agency is now risking a repeat of the E. coli outbreak that closed the U. S. border to much of the Canada’s beef.
“If you don’t have enough inspectors and if they’re not in the plant every day, it’s very hard to inculcate a culture of safety,” Lewis said.
“It’s a recipe for trouble.”