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30.11.01, 15:32
Page URL: www.nationalpost.com/news/updates/story.html?
f=/news/updates/stories/20011129/national-642023.html
November 30, 2001
Lax inspection puts contaminated meat, milk and vegetables on plates says
auditor
COLIN PERKEL
Canadian Press
TORONTO (CP) - Contaminated meat, milk and vegetables produced in Ontario have
likely found their way to the dinner tables of consumers because of lax
government inspections, the province's auditor warned Thursday. Meat was
spotted on dirty surfaces and carcasses seen transported in unrefrigerated
trucks in inspections of Ontario-regulated abattoirs that exposed serious
problems in every slaughterhouse examined.
"I don't want to stand here and alarm people, but (the safety of our food
supply) is of concern," auditor Erik Peters said in an interview.
"They (the government) have to do more to ensure the safety of our food supply."
In his annual report to the legislature, Peters noted that inspectors rely too
much on how Ontario meat looks and smells in determining whether it is safe to
eat.
The meat is hardly ever tested for antibiotics, which could pose a threat to
some consumers, and there is no random testing for microbiological and chemical
contamination, the report found.
Even potentially hazardous problems at slaughterhouses - problems the ministry
itself defined as "critical" - were overlooked.
"Almost one-third of the deficiencies noted were detected again during the
following year's audit," Peters said.
In some cases, it took more than six months for ministry inspectors to ask
plant-owners to fix the problems, Peters found.
Only 14 per cent of the province's meat supply is provincially inspected, with
Ottawa responsible for the rest.
Ontario's fruits and vegetables aren't necessarily a healthier alternative.
Three or four of every 100 samples tested by the Agriculture Ministry were
awash in chemicals at levels that exceeded allowable limits by as much as 80
times.
The ministry also failed to inspect one-third of the 46 provincially licensed
dairy plants it was required to examine last year.
A full 90 per cent of the goats' milk tested by the ministry had too much
bacteria, and one-third of the goat farms inspected failed to meet ministry
standards but the ministry took no action.
Revelations that some of the food produced in Ontario may be unsafe comes as
public health officials in the province try to pinpoint the source of another
potentially deadly outbreak of E. coli that just last week sent 12 people to
hospital.
"The auditor's report tells us why (they're ill)," said New Democrat Leader
Howard Hampton, who added the government is putting corporate tax cuts ahead of
health concerns.
Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty accused the government of "gross negligence" by
cutting the number of full-time inspectors - from 103 in 1995 to just eight in
2000.
"Just like Walkerton, your cuts are endangering families," McGuinty said.
Agriculture Minister Brian Coburn said the ministry has addressed almost half
of the auditor's recommendations and had "increased surveillance" using 131
part-time contract inspectors.
"We have safe food in Ontario, the safest food in the world, and we intend to
keep it that way."
There have been changes to food inspection since the auditor investigated, said
Tom Baker, director of the Food Inspection Branch of the Ministry of
Agriculture.
"There have been 50,000 more hours of inspections during the past year," Baker
said Thursday.
"Ten full-time scientists have been hired to conduct tests for chemical and
microbiological contaminants."
Baker also noted that current legislation only allows inspectors to check
abattoirs and farms.
"There are manufacturing facilities we should also be looking at," he said.
Branch inspectors can respond to a farm "within 24 hours if random sampling
identifies a possible problem," Baker added.
One way to assess the safety of the domestic food supply is to look at the
incidence of illness caused by tainted food but Peters found the ministry has
no way of tracking illnesses.
"We were informed that due to staff reductions and reorganization, ministry
staff no longer investigate the source of concerns to help producers resolve
identified problems," Peters said.
A major problem is the lack of serious penalties for violating food-safety
laws, the auditor said.
The average fine was just $320 for offences such as illegally slaughtering
poultry, improperly processing cheese and breaking the rules on disposing of
dead animals.
The auditor also warned that inadequate licensing and monitoring of the
deadstock industry raises the possibility that meat declared unfit for people
could nevertheless end up on store shelves.
In one case, meat that should have been marked as inedible wasn't because the
plant operator ran out of the charcoal used to mark the meat's quality.
To improve matters, Peters recommended tougher penalties for violating food-
safety rules, stronger and more consistent enforcement of regulations and
better monitoring, especially when it comes to past offenders.
In its response, the ministry said it agrees with the recommendations and that
is was putting in place "solid risk-management processes."
Highlights from the 2001 report released Thursday by Ontario auditor Erik
Peters:
- "Critical" safety deficiencies are going unattended at slaughterhouses, with
no random tests of meat for bacterial or chemical contamination;
- Out of 800 fruit and vegetable samples tested, chemical contamination
exceeded acceptable levels in 28 cases, sometimes by as much as 80 times the
limit;
- Penalties for violating food safety laws are too low;
- Road tests for some new drivers are too short;
- Potentially dangerous drivers are still on the road thanks to a backlog of
30,000 medical reports dating back to 1997, assessing whether or not they
should be behind the wheel;
- Drivers with licences suspended for impaired driving were reinstated due to
procedural deficiencies;
- Cost of project to speed information between three justice ministries has
soared to $359 million from $180 million, while estimated savings have plunged
to $172 million;
- Millions are being wasted through overspending on generic drugs and a program
to provide wheelchairs and oxygen to residents with long-term disabilities;
- Province can't determine whether $1.36 billion in special education funding
is being spent properly by school boards to meet the children's needs.
- More than a thousand women and their children were turned away from
government-subsidized domestic-violence shelters.
