Conservatives block additional scrutiny of food safety bill

Food safety legislation and sweeping changes to the Canadian Grain Commission are being rushed through Parliament with scant opportunity for MPs to consider their implications. Conservative MPs used their majority on the Commons agriculture committee last week to reject a Liberal call to extend hearings on the Safe Food for Canadians Act and have Agriculture

Ritz regrets XL Foods wasn’t pushed harder

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency should have been “more vociferous” in demanding inspection data from XL Foods during the early stages of the contaminated beef crisis, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz admits. “The CFIA could have been more hard nosed,” Ritz said at Commons agriculture committee hearings on legislation that will overhaul the agency. But he


CFIA officials reviewing XL procedures

The number of Canadian confirmed cases of E. coli from the XL beef plant at Brooks, Alta. had reached 11 by press time Monday. Meanwhile, the beef recall had spread from North America to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety had advised local companies to stop selling and to recall “a small

CFIA temporarily closes XL plant

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has temporarily shut one of the country’s largest meatpacking plants after contaminated beef products, that were distributed across Canada and the United States, are believed to have sickened several people. The operators of privately held XL Foods’ plant in Brooks, Alberta have not done enough to prevent contamination by


Traceability initiatives announced

Staff / New regulations will soon make traceability mandatory for pigs, the federal government has announced. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is proposing regulations that would require custodians of pigs to identify all farmed pigs and farmed wild boars using approved methods and record and report all movements of pigs from birth or import, to

Government putting finishing touches on new food-safety act

CFIA wants feedback on inspection changes The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is seeking feedback on its plans to streamline food-safety inspection to put more emphasis on risk management. The agency has posted background information and directions on its website www.inspection.gc.ca on how individuals, groups and associations can comment on the plans, first announced in the


Processors fear added costs with meat inspection

A pending change to meat inspection in the province is raising concerns. The current agreement between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province officially expires June 15, although the CFIA has agreed to continue to oversee inspections until the end of 2013 when the province will take over. (The change doesn’t affect federally registered

Federal food laws face overhaul

The Harper government is putting the finishing touches to a major revamp of federal food laws to make processors and manufacturers more responsible for food safety while inspectors focus on the risky segments of the business. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is expected to present the legislation, known unofficially as the Food Act, to Parliament sometime


Oversights on seeds and fertilizers chopped

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is cutting back its oversight on laws governing seeds, fertilizers and other sectors that impact farmers. While it has yet to announce the measures, changes in the administration of the Seeds Act and the Fertilizers Act are already under development. The agency wants to introduce plans, some of which have

Concerns raised about CWD entering Manitoba

Changes are coming to the way the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) handles chronic wasting disease (CWD) in farmed elk populations, but what those changes are is up for debate. “While we don’t have all the details yet — the federal government has signalled that they are giving up on the idea of eradicating the