July 30, 2013
Canada to implement food safety reforms
Canada's agricultural minister, Gerry Ritz, has expressed his confidence and hope thattheCanadian Food Inspection Agency will implement strong reformswhichcanimprove domesticfood safety and boosttheinternational competitive advantage for the country's agricultural sector.
Last week, as part ofan annual meeting in Halifax, Canada's federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers haverenewed their commitment to the implementation of traceability for cattle, hogs, poultry and sheep, and endorsed the development of a Food Safety Integrated Surveillance Network to link federal, provincial and private food laboratories. They also seek toimprove detection and response to food-borne threats and were given an update on food safety modernisation activities under the federal government's Safe Food for Canadians Action Plan.
According to Ritz, the issues offood safety and traceabilityare mainlybased on identifying concerned sitesandsituational awareness.
He alsorevealed abouta new computer programmewhichprovides real-time monitoring on farms, thusenablingswifter decision-making processes and amore rapid response to situations, such as a disease outbreak.
Ritzadded thatthe Food Safety Integrated Surveillance Network involvesseveral workingcomponents and is a work in progress.