He also hopes the Community Dinner Guidelines now posted on Manitoba Health’s website, helps allay concerns that public health inspectors’ food safety requirements are making it too difficult to host these events, said Mike Le Blanc.

These guidelines are not difficult to meet. They’re practical and common-sense procedures for safely preparing food served to the public, Le Blanc said.

“We were hearing a lot of feedback from people saying community dinners or fall suppers are really difficult to host because the rules are so strict,” he said.

“That’s why we put this out there, just to clarify things and to dispel any rumours and myths about what our requirements are.”

The document defines a community dinner as any event where non-professionally catered food is served, including church suppers, potlucks and fall suppers.

One section of the guidelines refers to where any potentially hazardous food, or ingredient — foods that contain milk, meat or poultry — should be prepared in a facility that has a food safety permit. Manitoba Agriculture has a list of these permitted kitchens on its website.

That recommendation is there because it’s generally more difficult to cook large quantities of these foods in a private kitchen and keep these foods at a safe holding temperatures, Le Blanc said.

“A commercial facility usually has better equipment for producing large volumes of food,” he said.

However, inspectors also recognize that fall supper preparation involves volunteers cooking turkeys in home kitchens and transporting them to these suppers.

“We realize there is a history of this across Manitoba for generations,” he said. “We also recognize that this goes on and we’re trying to give best advice and guidance on how to prepare it safely.”

The guidelines also lay out proper procedures for transporting hot foods — in insulated containers or wrapped in foil and heavy towels to maintain food at 60 C (140 F) or hotter — with temperatures verified with a probe thermometer and written records of measured temperatures kept.

Other recommendations in the guidelines are that at least one of the event’s co-ordinators take an approved food handler course. The guidelines also lay out proper procedures for serving prepared food, food storage, dishwashing, handling leftovers, and personal hygiene for food handlers.

Any inspector visiting one of these events is looking for things like preparers or servers touching food with bare hands, and other matters such as dishwashing procedures or foods being left too long on counters.

Foodborne illness outbreaks associated with these community dinners have been infrequent, Le Blanc said, adding that’s a sign those who host these events are doing the right things now.

“I think the fact that we don’t have them happen all that often speaks to the fact that most of these places are really following the rules already,” he said.

He said he hopes dinner hosts will familiarize themselves with the guidelines, and if they want clarification on something in them to contact their local health inspector who will be happy to answer their questions.

Phone numbers for all offices of public health inspectors are included in the document, which can be downloaded here.

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The government announced a Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan in 2007, which was to include measures to improve the food safety system for imported food products.

In 2010, the agency launched a consultation on licensed importers. At the time, it said it intended to strengthen the accountability of importers for the safety of imported alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, confectionery, fats and oils, infant formula, coffee and tea, cereals, spices and seasonings, juices and bakery products.

“The total value of food imported into Canada has increased by approximately 45 per cent in the past nine years, growing from $20.9 billion in 2001 to $30.5 billion in 2010. Raw ingredients and food products are imported from an estimated 190 countries, which have varying levels of food safety controls,” the agency said in early April.

The proposed regulations would require licences and prescribe food safety requirements for food importers. Previously, CFIA said that given the growing complexity of “global marketing and mass distribution networks means that the scope and impact of failures in food safety systems can be widespread.” Among the best-known problems with imports in recent years have been E. coli in American spinach, melamine in Chinese milk products and salmonella in peanut butter and hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

Under the proposed system, imports would all have to comply with the same requirements and be held to the same standard as domestic products. CFIA plans to impose cost recovery on the importers following WTO rules. Importers account for about 70 per cent of the food products and beverages sold in Canada. The rules wouldn’t apply to non-commercial shipments or for meals on planes, trains or ships.

Importers that don’t register are at risk of having their products seized by the Canada Border Services Agency, which is responsible for the initial import inspection service at all Canadian ports of entry for the majority of commodities that the CFIA regulates.

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Since then, the government has received 57 proposals from the Weatherill inquiry into the deadly 2008 listeria outbreak, as well as recommendations from the Commons agriculture committee to improve food safety.

The CFIA announcement said new regulations would be made under the Canada Agricultural Products Act, but gave no indication of when that might happen or what sort of regulations will be considered, although they will cover both food safety requirements and a licensing regime for importers.

The products include food and food ingredients regulated under the Food and Drugs Act and account for 70 per cent of the food products available in the Canadian marketplace. Among them are alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, confectionery, fats and oils, infant formula, coffee and tea, cereals, spices and seasonings, juices and bakery products. They’re imported from more than 190 countries which have varying levels of food safety controls,

“An increase in the complexity of global marketing and mass distribution networks means that the scope and impact of failures in food safety systems can be widespread,” CFIA stated in a press release.

Among the best-known problems with imports in recent years have been E. coli in U. S. spinach, melamine in Chinese milk products, and salmonella in peanut butter and hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

The agency says it wants advice on what areas are of greatest risk and concern, how to respond more rapidly when there is a food safety problem, and how to prevent the marketing of unsafe food.

It would establish an Imported Food Sector system that would provide a more level playing field among imported and domestic products, a frequent request from food manufacturers and farm groups.

Under the proposed system, imports would have to comply with the same requirements and be held to the same standard as domestic products. For those who wish to participate in the consultation, there is a link on the main page of the CFIA’s website ( www.inspection.gc.ca). The consultation runs until Oct. 4.

———

“Anincreaseinthe complexityofglobal marketingand massdistribution networksmeans thatthescopeand impactoffailuresin foodsafetysystems canbewidespread.”

– CFIA

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“It’s not a question of hiring people off the street. We need competent, qualified people in food safety. And we have to provide them with training on our procedures.”

Aconsumers’ group and the union that represents federal meat inspectors says Ottawa is starving the Canadian Food Inspection Agency of funds rather than getting on with implementing recommendations intended to improve food safety.

Anu Bose, a spokeswoman for Option Consumer, and Bob Kingston, president of the union that represents CFIA meat inspectors, told a Parliament Hill news conference Jan. 27 that six months have passed since special investigator Sheila Weatherill released her report on the Maple Leaf listeria outbreak in 2008 that killed 22 and sickened scores more.

But little action has been taken on her 57 recommendations for improving food safety, they said. The CFIA’s efforts to correct problems “have been hamstrung by the absence of political will and commitment to improve on the part of the federal government,” Kingston said. “The inspector shortage is as acute as ever and we continue to be hobbled by an inspection system that is deeply flawed.”

“Consumer confidence in food safety has been shaken to the core. The absence of any visible action six months after the Weatherill report will do nothing to repair this,” Bose said. With its mandate to inspect sanitation practices and enforce food safety requirements, the underresourced CFIA is failing to protect Canadian consumers.

The charges didn’t sit well with CFIA executive vice-president Brian Evans. Their comments “don’t reflect the substantive work we’ve already done on the report.” He said many of the changes will be phased in over three years but the agency is acting on all that

fall within its purview.

For example, the CFIA has already hired 17 new inspectors and of fers are being made to others. It fully expects to reach its goal of 30 new inspectors by the end of March. More will be added over the next two years.

“It’s not a question of hiring people off the street. We need competent, qualified people in food safety. And we have to provide them with training on our procedures.”

As for the third-party audit of inspection resources recommended by Weatherill, CFIA has provided data to Agriculture Canada, which has hired a firm to study the material and examine conditions across the country. He couldn’t say why the government hadn’t announced the start of this work.

A review of CFIA’s meat inspection system is behind schedule but will begin in February, he adds. Part of the delay was consulting with the inspector’s union on how the review will operate.

In a brief statement issued after the news conference, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz insisted the government was investigating the promised $75 million in CFIA and other government agencies to help implement Weatherill’s recommendations. “This government has given more resources to CFIA and put more inspectors on the ground than ever before. We’ve also strengthened protocols such as reinstating mandatory environmental testing for ready-to-eat meats.”

In the past, Kingston has been ultra critical of CFIA management. This time, he said they are trying their best but they lack the finances and manpower to do all that’s expected.

He said that nothing had been done on analysis of CFIA’s inspection resources. Nor has the government taken a serious look at whether a new inspection approach adopted by CFIA, called Compliance Verification, actually works.

Kingston said that Ritz warned several months ago that food safety improvements would be delayed if the opposition forced an election. Now it appears change has been held up by the Harper government’s prorogation of Parliament. “With Parliament prorogued, there is little that consumers can do to hold the government to account for this dismal performance.”

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The province has ditched its old 14-day limit to the days of operation, and will now permit farmers’ markets to open as often as two days a week – every week all year round.

Manitoba Agriculture and Manitoba Health and Healthy Living jointly announced the change to the new Temporary Food Market Guidelines last week, saying this will give vendors more chances to sell, and Manitobans more opportunity to shop and support farmers at these markets.

The 14-day rule dated back to the early 1980s. With so much interest in shopping locally and buying direct, it was clearly time to look at this again, said Manitoba Health’s chief public health inspector Mike LeBlanc.

“Things have changed a lot in the 20 years since we first developed those guidelines,” LeBlanc said. This change now allows markets to open up much earlier and stay open later in the fall, potentially expanding the outdoor farmers’ market season to six months, he said.

“If they want to operate year round, they could,” he added, provided suitable indoor locations can be found.

CONSUMER DEMAND

Manitoba Health consulted with the Farmers’ Market Association of Manitoba (FMAM), Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives and other stakeholders over the winter to come up with new recommendations.

This gives vendors more opportunity to sell, and they won’t have to wait an entire week when produce is fast coming into season, said Farmers’ Market Association of Manitoba president Dave Kowslowsky, a market gardener and vendor at Killarney.

“When things are going strong and the vegetables are coming in, they don’t wait until Saturday or Thursday. We’re going to be able to move more produce and meet the demand of people. The consumer demand is there.”

Koslowsky said Killarney doesn’t plan to expand its market days at the moment. He doesn’t expect a lot of markets will adjust their schedule either right away. Some locations, such as in Brandon, will be glad for the chance and have been asking for this change. But it’s a lot of work to set up and run a market.

“Most places have trouble finding vendors as it is. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of changes.”

VENDORS IN SHORT SUPPLY

The association has posted a “help wanted” notice on their website this month, noting demand for vendors is now at an all-time high.

LeBlanc said there’s clearly no impact on public health to let markets open more often, so long as all other food safety requirements are met by vendors, he said.

“We want to be legislating or regulating public health. We don’t want to be regulating business,” he said.

The other major change in the guidelines is the wording of the document. It now offers a better explanation of how to sell more types of foods instead of simply stating that certain types of foods can’t be sold. Even foods on a “potentially hazardous” list such as those containing egg or dairy, can, in fact, be sold, if prepared in licensed food premises, the guidelines now point out.

LANGUAGE

“Just because a food product is on this list does not mean that it cannot be sold at a farmers’ market” the new guidelines now state and go on to outline clearer steps to food protection and labelling, including how to find an approved food handling establishment, and getting a permit from a public health inspector.

Local church halls, community centres, and legions and nursing homes are all good places to make inquires to use, the guidelines note. They also list the phone number of the Food Development Centre at Portage la Prairie for people to call with questions.

“We’ve tried to take out the scary language so instead of being forbidding, it’s enabling,” LeBlanc said.

The new guidelines can be found on the FMAM website at http://www.manitobafarmersmarkets.ca/.

lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

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“Frankly, we’re not opposed to China seeking relief from the WTO, and we wish them success”

– JIM SUMNER, USA POULTRY AND EGG EXPORT COUNCIL

China said March 11 that it plans to file a complaint at the World Trade Organization about a U. S. law, renewed this month, that blocks imports of Chinese poultry products. A major U. S. poultry trade group, frustrated by its inability to get Congress to rescind what it sees as a hypocritical measure, said it supports China’s move.

“Frankly, we’re not opposed to China seeking relief from the WTO, and we wish them success,” said Jim Sumner, president of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council. “We feel that China is not being dealt with fairly on this,” Sumner said in an interview.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry said it took issue with a section in the spending bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 11 that prohibits poultry imports from China.

The U. S. measure was “clearly unfair and malicious” and should be rescinded, Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

“China will file a case at the WTO and reserves the right to take further measures,” Yao said.

China was among the largest markets for U. S. poultry products in 2008, buying almost 754,000 tonnes valued at $677 million, according to industry data.

In 2006, the U. S. Agriculture Department moved to allow China to export processed poultry to the United States.

But Congress blocked the Food Safety and Inspection Service from implementing the regulation in fiscal 2008 with its appropriations bill funding the USDA. The bill prohibited USDA from implementing the regulation.

Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, has argued Chinese poultry products are a public health risk because of bird flu and poor sanitary conditions at processing plants.

China has been hit by a series of food and product safety scandals in the past few years, ranging from fake drugs to the industrial chemical melamine being found in dairy products.

Yao said China’s poultry industry now meets international standards for safety and quality control and that there were no justifiable technical or food safety reasons for the United States to bar Chinese imports of cooked poultry.

Foreign countries that meet the same food safety requirements as U. S. industry should be allowed access to the U. S. market, Sumner said, noting U. S. poultry groups have met with Chinese officials to explain they oppose the measure.

“We would expect no less from any other country, so they should expect (the same treatment) from us,” Sumner said. “We can’t be talking out of both sides of our mouth.”

Both the U. S. and Chinese poultry sectors have been hit hard by the economic slowdown. Chinese poultry producers have also been hurt by production lost to outbreaks of bird flu.

If Beijing files a WTO complaint, it will be its fourth since it joined the WTO in 2001.

China has strongly criticized the “Buy American” provisions of the U. S. stimulus package, saying it is strongly opposed to any rise in protectionist measures in the wake of the global economic slowdown.

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