Evidence of meeting #9 for Subcommittee on Food Safety in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was inspectors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:50 p.m.
Inspector, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Yes, we are. I am with the meat hygiene program.
5:50 p.m.
Jenifer Fowler Inspector, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I'm a regional auditor in the Toronto area in the meat hygiene program.
5:50 p.m.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
Can you tell me the exact nature of your work? Do you working meat inspectors? Are these ready-to-eat food processing plants?
5:50 p.m.
Inspector, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Just to clarify that, I'm a front-line food processing specialist inspector. Meat hygiene is my specialty; it's where I am inspecting. The plants that I do inspect are presently dry-cure plants and specifically just pork.
I'm sorry, what was the second part of your question?
5:50 p.m.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
I want to know exactly what sort of work you do and whether you inspect ready-to-eat food on-site, in the plant.
5:50 p.m.
Inspector, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Yes. I do work directly in the establishments. The two establishments that I presently have are both for ready-to-eat.
Starting from the beginning, my job duties are to perform CVS tasks. Also, my job duties are to ensure that import and export inspection is done, as well as filing reports, answering e-mails and phone calls, and setting up schedules for the rest of the week for CVS tasks that I'm supposed to be doing. All that comes into play in the plants I'm in.
The food processing plant that I work at presently is a Maple Leaf plant; I do have both of those plants at this moment. The dry-cured product is produced there. Also, ready-to-eat product is produced there, which is fully cooked and ready-to-eat product. I am there from 7:30 in the morning until 3:30. When I do come in to perform my duties, I make sure that I release the stamps for export certification and verification to be done by the establishment under my auspices.
I also might have to leave halfway through the day to go to my second establishment. That happens to be the sister plant of my original home base establishment, which of course produces half of the product that they export at the original home plant that I'm in. That product down there is, again, just pork, and it is a dry-cured product. That's all it is. It differs slightly in that all they do is add salt to it and dry-cure it for anywhere between nine months to a year, depending on the size and the piece. That product could be packaged at that plant as a ready-to-eat product providing it meets all the critical control points, the CCPs that are in the establishment's HACCP written program, which have to be met before the product can ever leave the establishment.
They have two HACCP plants. One is the ready-to-eat dry-cure plant--not cooked, but dry-cured--which is the sister plant. The other establishment produces dry-cured, fermented, and also cooked product, and also dry-cured and fermented and cooked as well. They differ in the sense that one is declared ready to eat after it's been cooked and presented that way, and packaged and sliced through two production lines. They have two slicing lines. The other product is just a dry-cured product, which has to meet with water activity, which is a critical control point, and also has a pH factor, which is the acidity in the product that must be met. When those two are achieved, the product is declared ready to eat and it's also sliced as well, or cut in half and sent out that way.
5:55 p.m.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
In the past 20 years, have you noticed any changes in the way inspections are carried out? We've been told the problem would have arisen anyway since the Listeria bacteria were not visible. In your opinion, has the work you've been doing for the past 20 years in food inspection and food safety enabled you to ensure that the health of Quebeckers and Canadians has been protected? You can't see the Listeria bacteria, but in your work you still have to take action to ensure that equipment is cleaned for instance. In 20 years, you must surely have taken action that has ensured people's safety as far as their health was concerned.
5:55 p.m.
Inspector, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I'll have to clarify something first. I had split service with Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The first time I was on was from 1981 to 1987. At that time I was operating in the slaughterhouse environment, and it was a lot different from what I am doing now. At that time, it was the old system. In the old system, you had to be present, you had to do organoleptic inspection. You did very little processing, especially of finished, ready-to-eat product.
I did take an absence of seven years before coming back to my present position in 1994. When I did come back, Agriculture Canada, which it still was at that point, until 1997, was starting to change into the CFIA, into an agency. In terms of procedures and systems, I had to incorporate what I could use from the old system that we had prior, along with the new system that the agency was just starting to acquire. The MCAP system was what I learned. HACCP was just around the corner and I was learning that as well, under the FSEP. At that time, I did another five or six years as a contract employee for slaughter again, because that was my field of expertise. At that point I felt that I would like to go higher in the agency. I wanted to better myself, and I wanted to ensure that the job I was doing, for myself, was a career and not just a plain job.
Food safety is of prime importance, I think, to everybody. We all have to eat, and what we should be eating is a safe product. I feel that with the combination of my experience in the old system, along with the training in this present new system with the CFIA, with CVS tasks coming into effect, when you marry these two disciplines together you can do a better job.
I'm happy with what I do. I feel that it's effective, but as with every other system, as was mentioned earlier this evening, there are going to be problems that have to be resolved.
I cannot comment on an area that I have no expertise in. That would be better answered by people who make those decisions--those policies and programs. But overall I feel that our food safety system is very good. As I said previously, I'm very happy with what I do for a living. If I could put in a couple of more years, I'd be more than happy to do that, even after my retirement. So I do not feel at this point that it's that difficult.
6 p.m.
Conservative
6 p.m.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Stamatakis, I wasn't really clear. You said you were asked to come, and I believe you said Mr. Irons didn't ask you to come. Is that right?
6 p.m.
Inspector, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I received an e-mail saying to attend a meeting at our regional office. At that meeting, it was explained to me, along with my colleagues Jenifer Fowler and Don Irons, that we'd been invited to attend as witnesses.
6 p.m.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
Did an e-mail come from the clerk of this committee or did it come from CFIA?
6 p.m.
Inspector, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I'll have to go back and check on that. I really can't remember at this point.
6 p.m.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
If you would.
Mr. Chair, I understand he doesn't remember whose name is on the bottom of the e-mail, but if he could submit it to the clerk, I'd appreciate it.
6 p.m.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
As you heard the chair say, we only get seven minutes. I'm sure you would need more than probably the five and a half minutes that are left in our time here together--
