Progress on Food Safety
As of March 31, 2010

Food safety is a top priority for the Government of Canada. Continual changes in food sources and production and distribution methods demand vigilance by regulators in order to effectively manage new and emerging risks to food safety. This update describes the actions taken from the point immediately following the listeriosis outbreak to March 31, 2010.

Following the listeriosis outbreak in the summer of 2008, the Government immediately took a number of actions to reduce the risk posed by the possibility of similar outbreaks in the future. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Health Canada (HC), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) immediately undertook to examine their operations and actions taken during the outbreak to identify gaps and develop solutions which will increase prevention and improve the Government of Canada’s response to outbreaks. As a result, each organization prepared a "Lessons Learned" report which can be found on their respective websites.

In addition, the Government:

• tightened food safety control in federally registered plants that produce ready-to-eat meat products. The CFIA’s enhanced requirements focus on early detection, reporting, and control of Listeria risks by both government and industry. Actions include directing industry to aggressively and thoroughly clean slicing equipment and enhancing CFIA’s oversight of sanitation controls.
• strengthened CFIA’s directives regarding the control of Listeria in federally registered ready-to-eat meat processing plants, based on Health Canada’s Policy on Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods. These directives included mandatory requirements to conduct environmental testing in all plants and to immediately report positive findings.
• appointed an independent investigator to lead the examination of the listeriosis outbreak.
• fully cooperated with the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food’s Subcommittee on Food Safety, providing the Committee with a comprehensive response to its report, Beyond the Listeriosis Crisis: Strengthening the Food Safety System.

The Report of the Independent Investigator into the 2008 Listeriosis Outbreak, (the Weatherill Report), released on July 21, 2009, provides the Government with a roadmap to further enhance food safety oversight in Canada. In September 2009, the Government committed to act on all 57 recommendations of the Weatherill Report.

The Government is moving forward on the recommendations and is making measurable progress. Given the complexity of the task at hand, and the interrelationships and interdependencies among the recommendations, we are organizing our work in relation to three key themes that provide overall coherence to improving the food safety system in Canada - reducing food safety risks, enhancing surveillance, and improving emergency response.

Theme I: Reducing Food Safety Risks

The Government agrees that it must continually review and adjust its food safety standards, policies, operational procedures and legislative framework so that oversight continues to be effective. To this end, the Government is focussing on the following areas:

Improving processes and completing regulatory/policy changes

• Health Canada is revising and strengthening its Listeria Policy, which now includes all ready-to-eat foods. Targeted stakeholder consultations to guide the revision have taken place since September 2009, and a proposed strengthened policy is currently available on Health Canada’s website for further public consultation. Once the policy is finalized, CFIA will work closely with Health Canada and industry to phase in implementation.
• Health Canada is also developing guidelines with established criteria to prioritize and fast track approvals of food safety interventions with proven health benefits. An initial draft is currently under review, and is expected to be finalized by mid-2010.
• Health Canada, in collaboration with PHAC and CFIA, is developing a guidance document on the weight of different factors (type of laboratory, food safety investigation and epidemiological evidence) needed to support appropriate and timely actions during foodborne illness outbreak investigations (such as when to issue food recalls and public advisories). The draft document is currently under consultation with federal, provincial and territorial counterparts and will be peer-reviewed by select international counterparts in spring 2010.
• Health Canada is continuing to strengthen its health risk assessment capacity to provide 24/7 coverage and enhance surge capacity preparedness and is also enhancing its standard operating procedures in support of CFIA’s food safety investigations. As well, Health Canada is improving the quality of risk assessments by developing internationally consistent methodologies.
• In April 2009, CFIA implemented revised Listeria directives which require meat processors to bring Listeria-positive results to the attention of the assigned inspectors. CFIA is continually reviewing and updating its Manuals of Procedures and is committed to a process of continuous improvement to ensure that these manuals remain up to date.

Ensuring that there are adequate, well-trained human resources to support the delivery of programs to manage food safety risks

• A third-party review of CFIA's food safety inspection resources is underway and is expected to be completed by September 2010. This review is being supported by a number of complementary initiatives intended to enhance the implementation of the Compliance Verification System (CVS). For example, CFIA is conducting an internal audit of CVS implementation as it relates to training and quality management activities. Concurrently, CFIA, in partnership with union representatives, is holding consultation sessions with front-line staff who use the CVS for the Meat Hygiene Program. In addition, an external panel of experts will review the technical requirements of the CVS, including the relevance of the assigned tasks to achieving food safety outcomes, the frequency of task assignment, and the amount of time allocated per task. The independent panel will complete its review by May 2010.
• As it relates to capacity, a total of 166 new staff dedicated to food safety will be hired by Health Canada, PHAC, and CFIA over the next three years.
• The Government has made incremental funds available to CFIA to hire and train new inspection staff in federally registered ready-to-eat meat plants. Staffing of 35 new meat processing inspectors will be completed by March 31, 2010. Information on the number of food inspectors CFIA employs can be found on its website.
• A new National Training Plan for Meat Processing Inspectors is under development and will consist of 29 weeks of blended training (self-study, e-learning, coaching, instructor-led).

Enhancing compliance by ensuring that inspection staff have the necessary information, tools and guidance available to them for effective risk-based inspection delivery

• CFIA is equipping its inspectors with better tools and technologies. A pilot project has been initiated to provide inspectors in remote areas with the ability to securely access the CFIA network and applications through high speed internet connectivity using laptops. The outcome of this pilot project will be evaluated in the spring of 2010.

Increasing public awareness of food safety risks

• Health Canada has initiated the development of a food safety social marketing campaign targeting Canadians at greater risk from foodborne illness. As a first step, the department has conducted public opinion research on the awareness, knowledge and behaviours of Canadians related to safe food handling practices to better inform planning and development of this important campaign. This research has a particular focus on seniors, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems. Initial roll-out of stage one of the campaign is expected in late March 2010. In addition, Health Canada continues to inform the general public of safe food handling practices through the regular release of tip sheets and information updates in conjunction with CFIA, on topics ranging from holiday food safety to food safety tips for barbecuing.
• In fall 2009, the CFIA met with consumers and consumer association representatives across Canada to educate them on issues such as CFIA’s role in food recalls and food safety investigations and to consult with them on how they wanted to receive information on these subjects. The Consumer Centre section of the CFIA website has been redesigned to more clearly explain the roles that consumers, government and industry play in food safety, and to provide more information on important food safety issues. CFIA has also proactively provided food safety experts to television food shows, and continues to distribute food safety fact sheets to the public in conjunction with Health Canada.
• In February 2010, the Government of Canada launched an online food safety portal that offers a one-stop approach to food safety and foodborne illness information (www.foodsafety.gc.ca).

Theme II: Enhancing Surveillance and Early Detection

The Government is actively supporting national surveillance and early detection of foodborne illnesses through improvements to operational, laboratory and disease reporting networks. This support is key to improving preparedness for a future outbreak. For example:

• The Government is supporting the implementation of next-generation laboratory methods within PulseNet Canada. PulseNet Canada is coordinated by PHAC and represents a network between provincial public health laboratories and federal laboratories (including those of PHAC, CFIA and HC). The goal of the network is to share the information relating to genetic fingerprinting tests to allow for real-time identification, communication and response to clusters of foodborne illness. New experimental approaches to characterize bacterial pathogens have been developed within Canada and the PulseNet International member laboratories - these approaches have been evaluated and are now implemented for selected pathogens. Specifically, responses to outbreaks related to pathogens E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria have benefited by utilizing these new technologies.
• CFIA has expanded its capacity to conduct enhanced Listeria surveillance and testing pursuant to sampling plans which were implemented in April 2009. To address the increased volume of samples, all CFIA food microbiology laboratories were made available to receive samples and perform tests, seven days per week. The CFIA has also established a Pulse-Field Gel Electrophoresis center in one of its laboratories, to improve the Agency’s ability to identify pathogens.
• Health Canada and CFIA are working to improve and validate detection methods for Listeria and other hazards in food to reduce testing time and enable more rapid response during food safety investigations. For example, an enhanced method for detection of Listeria (results in 5 – 7 days instead of the former 10 days) has been validated for meat products and is in use by all CFIA Food Microbiology labs today. The method is now published in the Compendium of Analytical Methods on Health Canada's website, and is being validated for use with other commodities at this time.
• Health Canada has also begun working with the National Research Council on a multi-year project to develop even faster lab results (48 hours) for Listeria.
• PHAC is working on a pan-Canadian surveillance system. It is initiating plans for a pilot implementation of the Panorama system, funded by Canada Health Infoway, in order to test the feasibility of using the system for managing multi-jurisdictional outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. It will include an investigation of the feasibility of integration with existing alerting systems such as the Canadian Integrated Outbreak Surveillance Centre (CIOSC).

Theme III: Improving Emergency Response

The Government has taken steps to improve the management of foodborne illness outbreaks through enhanced governance, transparency and coordination. For example:

• With regard to improvements in governance, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food intends to proceed with the establishment of a Ministerial Advisory Board. Officials are also analyzing related governance recommendations, including the establishment of a Board of Management for the CFIA.
• CFIA has undertaken a review of existing advisory committees within other government departments, agencies and foreign governments to determine best practices and to develop options for expert advisory committee mandates, structures and membership.
• PHAC is working to increase its capacity for flexible and timely response to public health threats. The appointment of a Chief Operating Officer (COO) in September 2009 allows the Chief Public Health Officer to focus on his executive duties and responsibilities as the lead health professional of the Government of Canada in relation to public health. This new position will help to ensure that the Agency has a robust emergency preparedness and response capability.
• A revised draft of the Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response Protocol (FIORP) was developed by HC, CFIA, and PHAC, working collaboratively, and shared with the provinces and territories (P/Ts) in February 2010. It reflects clarified roles and responsibilities of food safety partners, as well as guidelines for information sharing during foodborne illness investigations. P/T health and agriculture ADMs are finalizing their input on the revised FIORP, with a view to endorsing the document in the spring of 2010.
  • Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response Protocol (FIORP)
• PHAC has established a secretariat office to coordinate its surge capacity under the FIORP. The purpose of this office is to ensure that PHAC is positioned to assign qualified individuals needed to effectively manage and respond to a multi-jurisdictional outbreak. The Agency has completed a skills survey of its staff that identifies qualified individuals who could be assigned in these circumstances.
• PHAC is developing a comprehensive risk communications strategy that will guide how the Agency communicates to Canadians during a national foodborne illness outbreak. The strategy includes plans for communicating with the public and at-risk populations using a variety of traditional and innovative formats, including social media networks, the newly launched food safety portal, and audio-video webcasts by the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada. PHAC also collaborates with Health Canada to ensure that the Agency’s information for Canadians during a national outbreak flows consistently from Health Canada’s pre-outbreak food safety advice.
• PHAC, in close consultation with HC and CFIA, is developing an incident command structure to improve coordination and capacity among food safety partners during foodborne illness outbreaks, and is refining and implementing this emergency response mechanism to better prepare and respond to potential foodborne illness outbreaks. Integration with CFIA’s Emergency Management System is underway and will be assessed in 2010.
• The Government has finalized the Federal Communications Protocol on Food Safety Issues. The protocol is guided by risk communications principles and is consistent with the Health Portfolio Strategic Risk Communications Framework.

In summary, the Government is making measurable progress in addressing the recommendations of the Independent Investigator. The $75 million announced by the Government in September of 2009 attests to its commitment to move quickly on these recommendations. Strengthening the food safety system is a continuous process to which this Government is fundamentally committed.