Pat's Note: Not a happy picture.

The interesting this that the detail of the US inspections of Canadian
plants were published in the US but not in Canada.

Canada shares a culture of secrecy with Britain.

"Canada did not like their tone"

They will like it a lot less once the class actions get under way.

The voters in Canada will flock to support the American view.

Britain has no option but to fire and/or prosecute its bent government
vets.

The world has changed. 

Nobody is going to put up with a rathole of animal and human disease,
run by crooks, continuing in international trade.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080829.wmeat_USDA30/BNStory/National

Maple Leaf criticized in 2007 audit
 Article  Comments   BILL CURRY 

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

August 29, 2008 at 10:51 PM EDT

OTTAWA — A mousetrap plugged with discarded pieces of meat and animal
fat turned up in a May, 2007, inspection of Maple Leaf's meat plant in
Brandon.

The observation wasn't made by Canadian officials, but by Alam Khan, a
senior auditor with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mr. Khan said
in a report that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspector
accompanying him on the tour scooped the obstruction out of the trap.

Pest-control devices must be working properly to be approved by U.S.
auditors. The official who cited the clogged mousetrap gave the
facility a failing grade in pest control, and told his U.S. colleagues
it wasn't an isolated problem.

The auditor's report notes that Maple Leaf had been warned multiple
times about problems with the kind of trap it was using “and yet no
action was taken by the establishment to correct the problem.”

Although several Canadian plants have lost the approval of the USDA to
ship to the United States because of these audits, Maple Leaf plants
have not received that sanction. Maple Leaf spokeswoman Linda Smith
noted that all of the company's plants remain in good standing with
the USDA.

“They have passed their recent inspections,” she said. “Minor findings
are part of the audit process and are not uncommon.”

The mousetrap incident is just one of a litany of failings outlined in
the latest USDA audit of Canada's meat, poultry and egg inspection
system.

All Canadian plants that are approved for exporting to the United
States must allow U.S. officials to audit their facilities.

More than two dozen on-site audits done between May 1 and June 6,
2007, were compiled into a final report on Canada's meat, poultry and
egg products inspection system.

The report says that 19 out of 20 audited plants were not complying
with sanitation standards, while Canadian inspectors were not always
aware of their duties, “and were not well trained in the performance
of their inspection tasks.”

With Canada's decision this year to stop making facility reports and
rankings by Canadian inspectors, the USDA website may be the only
place where consumers can read detailed reports of what is happening
in this country's plants.

The Globe and Mail reported this week that Canada ended its ranking
system on March 31 after the industry complained the reports were
leading to negative media coverage.

The CFIA's response to the USDA's 2007 audit report – which included
the assessment of Maple Leaf's Brandon facility – shows that Canada
urged the Americans to soften their critical language.

Dr. Bill Anderson, the CFIA's director of meat programs, wrote last
year to the head of the USDA's international audit team. In the letter
posted with the report, Dr. Anderson noted that while none of the CFIA
inspectors who accompanied USDA officials on their audits challenged
the U.S. findings, Canada didn't like their tone.

“I would however like to voice my concern over the tone of general
statements made in the draft final report,” wrote Dr. Anderson,
singling out the finding that: “Nineteen of 20 slaughter and/or
processing establishments (including cold storage) had deficiencies in
[sanitation performance standards].”

“We found that this statement is unnecessarily severe,” Dr. Anderson
continued. He suggests that the line be changed to: “In addition, some
of the SPS requirements were not being enforced adequately in 19 of 20
establishments.”

Jim Laws, the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council,
confirmed this week that industry representatives had asked for the
Canadian rankings to be terminated because they were “archaic” and
causing council members grief when they became public.

A review of the U.S. audit illustrates why such information might be
controversial.

While the Maple Leaf plant in Toronto identified as the source of the
current listeria outbreak was not audited in 2007, the report says
that Maple Leaf plants in Brandon and Moncton were in “non-compliance”
regarding sanitary operations. The Brandon plant also received a
non-compliance ranking for pest control.

The problems were not exclusive to large companies like Maple Leaf. A
Charlottetown company called Natural Organic Food Group received a
particularly damaging report. Among the observations was a lack of
floor drainage in an employee's work area.

“Even though this employee had a slightly raised area to stand on, he
was surrounded by water with blood in it,” states one of the auditor's
observations. 

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Friday that Canadian's facility
rankings had become “antiquated” and needed to be replaced. Paul
Mayers of the CFIA said new compliance reports will be introduced.

“We have a commitment to transparency,” he said.

-- 
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/