Beyond the listeriosis crisis : Report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food

On 12 February 2009, the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food adopted the following motion: That, given the Listeriosis crisis that occurred last summer, the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food establish a Subcommittee on Food Safety; and that the members of the Subcommittee be named after the usual consultations with the Whips; the composition of the SubCommittee be proport [...] Provinces and territories are also involved in protecting the safety of the food supply, as described in the December 2000 Report of the Auditor General of Canada:1 Under their public health and trade mandates, the provinces’ and territories’ jurisdiction extends to all food manufactured and sold within their borders. [...] Responsibility in the Food Supply Chain In the aftermath of the deadly listeriosis outbreak in the summer of 2008, Michael McCain, President of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., accepted full responsibility for the distribution of contaminated meat. [...] CFIA, as well as Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), indicated that they consider food safety a responsibility shared among the three federal organizations and that government’s basic responsibility is to set the standards for 3 Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the House of Commons, Chapter 25, “Canadian Food Inspection Ag [...] Weatherill indicated that her mandate was: to examine the events, circumstances and factors that contributed to the outbreak; review the efficiency and the effectiveness of the response of the federal organizations in conjunction with their food safety system partners in terms of prevention, recall of contaminated products, and collaboration and communication, including communication with consumer