Facelift for food inspection system

OTTAWA – Canada’s food-inspection system is getting a major overhaul as the federal government gets set to move to a single-inspection approach across all commodities.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Friday its vision to modernize food inspection, making the case for getting rid of eight separate programs for dairy, eggs, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, imported and manufactured food, maple, meat and processed products.

Each program uses different riskmanagement systems, inspection methods and enforcement approaches, and CFIA says it’s time to bring consistency to food inspection in Canada with mandatory preventive controls for all foods across the supply chain.

“This challenges the CFIA to manage risks consistently across different types of establishments and different foods. It creates situations in which foods of similar risks may be inspected at different frequencies or in different ways,” CFIA writes of the current system in its discussion paper.

“The model should raise the bar and set expectations for food control systems that are developed and maintained by industry with risk-based government oversight. It should also standardize requirements and procedures across all food, based on science and risk.”

The release of the proposal, dubbed The Case for Change, kick-starts consultations, with a final plan to be released by next year and phased in over the next five years.

Funding will be drawn from a $100-million food-safety fund created in the 2011 budget, to be spent over five years.

Coming changes to the food inspection system will occur alongside a revamp of CFIA’s regulations covering food safety, plant health and animal health.