Action on Weatherill Report Recommendations to Strengthen the Food Safety System: Final Report to Canadians

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Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters Dec 21, 2011

We are pleased to inform you that Action on Weatherill Report Recommendations to Strengthen the Food Safety System: Final Report to Canadiansis now available on the Government of Canada’s food safety portal at www.foodsafety.gc.ca.

The report outlines the Government’s continuous work to reduce food safety risks, enhance surveillance and early detection of foodborne pathogens and illnesses, and improve emergency response as recommended in the Report of the Independent Investigator into the 2008 Listeriosis Outbreak.

• The final report highlights the action taken on all recommendations, which includes: 
• Identifying and fast-tracking the approval of food safety interventions such as food additives that reduce the growth of Listeria monocytogenes and other pathogens.
• Hiring 170 additional full-time inspectors to increase CFIA’s presence in federally registered meat processing plants.
• Developing new detection methods for Listeria and other hazards in food that reduce testing time and enable more rapid response during food safety investigations.
• Using innovative laboratory technologies in outbreak investigations and expanding the outbreak detection lab network to include public health and food safety partners across Canada.
• Supporting national public health surveillance to improve collection, reporting and analysis of a wide range of health information.
• Providing Canadians, including those most vulnerable, with the information they need to reduce the risk of a foodborne illness through a new online food safety portal and national public information campaigns.
• Updating the Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response Protocol, which guides how all levels of government work together to respond to a national or international outbreak.
• Ensuring that health risk assessment teams are available 24/7 to support food safety investigations.
• Building surge capacity in order to respond more quickly and effectively to potential future foodborne illness outbreaks.

Food safety is one of the Government’s top priorities. In collaboration with industry and health professionals, the Government continues to work to improve Canada’s food inspection and food safety emergency response systems.

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