Don’t worry
Re: “Meat of the matter,” Editorial, April 19.
The safety of Canadian food is in no way affected by Economic Action Plan 2012. This budget underscored our government’s commitment to ensuring food safety. It included an additional $51 million over two years to enhance food safety, building upon the $100 million in last year’s budget.
Since 2006, the CFIA has received funding to hire 733 net new inspection staff, including 170 meat inspectors. Had the Calgary Herald contacted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or my office before writing this misleading editorial, this would have been explained in full detail for the benefit of their readers.
Changes to CFIA’S labelling programs, such as pre-approving the labels on meat products, are not related to food safety. While removing this regulatory burden will reduce red tape, the CFIA is not removing the requirements for industry to meet health and safety standards. These changes will assist industry in getting products to market faster and allow the CFIA to focus on the verification and inspection activities that keep Canada’s food supply system one of the safest in the world.
CFIA is also creating an online tool to help industry better comply with non-safety labelling regulations (net quantity, bilingual labelling, legibility and location). This tool is expected to reduce the amount of time CFIA spends explaining and clarifying labelling rules to industry. CFIA inspectors will continue to perform label verification activities to check that label information reflects what is actually in the product.
Consumers can have confidence that Canadian food continues to meet their high standards.
Gerry Ritz, Ottawa Gerry Ritz is federal Agriculture minister.