Thank you.
Let me start by talking about the independence of CFIA, because it's something we really haven't discussed with this committee today in terms of the food recall.
We have an Office of Food Safety and Recall that is in charge of doing our food safety recall when we have a suspicion that a food is the reason for a food-borne illness. That office operates independently. They have protocols that require them to take action as soon as they suspect something. They have sampling plans, go out to industry, and make sure that as quickly as possible, when we are involved in a food safety investigation, the CFIA is on the case.
We talked earlier about standards, and standards for recall. When there is a food safety recall we try to make sure information goes to consumers that allows them to take some kind of reasonable action. We heard from colleagues that in the past there have been occasions when misinformation has gone out. There was the example of the possibility of infection of strawberries. Consumers were alerted early, although no specific product at that point had been identified as a source of the food-borne illness. There was a change in behaviour from strawberries to raspberries, and it turned out at the end of the day that raspberries were the culprit. So we take our responsibility very seriously.
There is an issue on which we look forward to receiving guidance from this committee. At what point is it appropriate, reasonable, and in the best interests of the consumer--which is our angle on this--to make sure there is notification and that information that is actionable is given out? As the food safety regulator, the CFIA has done that when we can identify a food and say to the consumer, “This is contaminated.” However, we think we can have a good dialogue about the point at which we should enter into that kind of discussion with the consumer, and we look forward to the advice of the committee.