When you grow your own food, choose your own seeds, use your own manure and compost and do your own butchering and preserving, you know exactly what you are eating. There is little need for regulation.

Now we buy pre-packaged school lunches; frozen 'home-made' pizza, which might be topped with cheese made with milk from rBGH-treated cows; hamburger pre-ground in giant meat processing factories (perhaps in Canada, perhaps in another country) and repackaged for local sale; prepared honey-lemon chicken breasts; potatoes (which might be genetically engineered); imported strawberries for dessert.

And then we hear about children poisoned by their manufactured school lunches; the high risk of Salmonella food poisoning from chicken and egg products; the danger of "hamburger disease" from poorly prepared and handled ground beef; Listeria in milk products; wedding celebrants laid low by staphylococcal food poisoning from the buffet; and other food safety threats like botulism.

Most of what we eat is grown, processed and stored countries and oceans away from where we live, and usually under different regulatory regimes than ours. When we choose our foods at the local grocer or super store, what do we know about it - about how it was grown, processed, stored and transported? How do we know whether those foods are safe?

Because we want and need to know, we have established regulatory practices to give us confidence that our food is uncontaminated and that we are getting what we are paying for. Now however, trade in food is growing explosively.

The Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations brought agriculture, and by extension, food, into the high-stakes arena of international trade.

Food safety and health issues are now trade issues, governed by the full range of international trade management mechanisms. Food is subject to economic forces which seek to reduce and eliminate barriers to trade, including domestic food safety and health regulations, that cannot be scientifically supported.

The precautionary principle has become an 'unfair' basis for regulation.

Such is life in the fast lane of a global food system based on export agriculture, where there is legitimate tension between interests. Trade interests want to be able to adapt quickly to new contexts: to streamline, harmonize, integrate their activities to reduce costs. Food/health safety interests want to reduce risk and control potential hazards by implementing harmonized safety standards like the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP - more on p. 18) and the ISO 9000 (more next Quarterly). Yet others want to do more than just reduce.

About the CFIA

WHAT IS IT?

The CFIA is a public agency reporting to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The Agency is respons-ible for food and fish inspection, and animal and plant health activities at the federal level. The agency will "ensure the application of food safety standards in their areas of responsibility to prevent or remove human health and safety threats created through chemical, biol-ogical, physical or other hazards." ⁽¹⁾

WHY WAS IT FORMED?

According to its documentation, "the CFIA will speed up and simplify the work already started by the Canadian Food Inspection System (CFIS) on harmonizing standards among federal, provincial and municipal governments. The Agency will facilitate the transition to greater provincial participation in a national food inspection system that respects the jurisdictions of the federal and provincial governments." ⁽¹⁾ Some, including the NFU, worry that the CFIA is the mechanism by which Canada will meet standards imposed by the WTO and the Codex Alimentarius. In so doing, citizens will lose the ability to influence and control national policies governing food safety, sovereignty and security.

HOW WILL THE CFIA ENSURE FOOD SAFETY?

The Food Inspection Directorate (FID) of the CFIA will develop, design and manage programs to ensure that food delivered to Canadians is safe, of high quality and is properly labeled. FID will "[facilitate] and [audit] the application of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point systems by industry; [monitor] the recall of unsafe food products; risk management; [register] establishments which trade interprovincially and internationally, and provide laboratory support through technology development and diagnostic services for all commodities and activities." Five divisions will oversee various sectors: Dairy, Fruit and Vegetable; Meat and Poultry Products; Food; Plant Products; Laboratory Services. ⁽¹⁾

WHAT CAN THE CFIA DO? ⁽²⁾

• require the recall of unsafe food products, diseased animals and plants that poses a risk to the public, animal or human health
• procure goods and services outside the federal government
• apply for interim injunctions to prevent contraventions of any of the acts it enforces
• fix and collect fees
• withdraw or withhold services if client fails to pay

WHAT NEXT FOR THE CFIA? ⁽³⁾

One of the key pieces of work that the CFIA has been given is to work with Health Canada to ensure that all legislation meets Agency regulatory needs and obligations as well as those of consumers, industry and our trading partners. Any recommendations arising from this discussion must fulfill several principles.

They should:

• contribute to consumer confidence relating to the safety of the food supply and the health of plants and animals;
• facilitate market access both domestically and internationally while protecting against product misrepresentation and economic fraud;
• be primarily based on and acknowledge the critical role of scientific evidence and risk assessment;
• encourage a greater degree of collaboration between industry, federal departments and with other orders of government;
• recognize that primary responsibility for food safety and animal and plant health remains with producers, processors and suppliers, backed up by effective control and enforcement by government;
• encourage a regulatory approach that covers the food production, processing and distribution chain.

Footnotes:

1. CFIA. Frequently Asked Questions.
2. CFIA. Highlights of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act
3. CFIA Decisions. February 1998. CFIA Legislative Renewal - Task Force Explores Options

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