Spot checks possible

“We were unable to confirm the volume of meat produced by these plants as the Ministry of Health does not monitor the number of animals slaughtered in them.”

She recommends the government assess the risks related to uninspected meat and consider whether Saskatchewan regulations for the production of meat need updating.

During 2011- 12, the auditor found that of the 76 plants inspected by regional health authorities, nine plants were deemed medium or high risk due to limitations such as adequate handwashing facilities.

The report noted the Health Ministry was unaware that six of the nine high- and medium-risk plants did not receive followup inspections within the required time frame.

Health Minister Dustin Duncan said the regional health authorities have been contacted to ensure followup inspections are taking place.

“I think that when there are issues that are being raised that that would elevate a facility of this nature to a higher risk and that followup needs to be done,” he said.

The health minister speculated that spot inspections of the facilities might be done in the future instead of annual checkups.

Duncan said the ministry will take the auditor’s recommendations under advisement and will work with the Ministry of Agriculture and regional health authorities to follow up on the recommendations.

Saskatchewan is the only province that has two ministries — agriculture and health — overseeing meat safety.

Duncan said facilities where meat is not being inspected tend to be small operations run primarily by farmers who slaughter and package beef for their own use.

“The challenge there is to ensure that a system is in place in terms of health’s perspective to ensure that the facility is up to the standards and that’s why we’ll revisit the standards and look at the way those are inspected by the regional health authorities,” Duncan said.

He noted that restaurant food isn’t tested by public health officials, but the facility is inspected to ensure food is being handled properly.

“Through public health, we do have a very rigorous tracking system when it comes to any types of illnesses that may be caused by food — similar to restaurants,” Duncan said.

To his knowledge, no food-borne illnesses have been tracked from slaughtering facilities where the meat isn’t inspected.

“All families in Saskatchewan, whether they live in urban areas or rural areas deserve to know whether or not the meat they’re eating is safe,” said Cam Broten, Opposition NDP health critic.

“We’ve seen recent incidents in the news in other jurisdictions where this has been a major problem. If it’s a concern for the province, the proper resources can be put in place so that inspections occur and that small producers can still carry on as they need to. It’s really a question of what importance we put on this issue.”

Slaughtering meat is governed by federal and provincial legislation and standards. However, in June 2011, the federal government announced that after this month it will no longer provide inspection services to help enforce provincial regulations.

When Duncan was asked if future provincial regulations should be stricter, he said it would take time to review the recommendations to see what changes would mean for the industry and for people who use these types of facilities.

“Primarily, it’s a pretty small market — this isn’t the food system at large that we’re dealing with ... This isn’t a comparable situation to XL (Foods), but we certainly take the recommendations of the auditor quite seriously,” Duncan said.