The federal government is working on ways it can maintain inspection staffing levels at federally-licensed meat packing plants. Speaking to media Saturday in Ottawa, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau addressed concerns surrounding the ability of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to continue meat inspection work. The Reuters news service on Monday quoted two unnamed sources […] Read more
Tag Archives cfia — page 9
Meat packing sector needs federal inspectors
Shared staff, recalling recent retirees among options on table
Manitoba to pilot insurance program against hog disease risks
Pork council study backed with federal, provincial funds
“Private sector solutions” to manage financial risks caused by disease outbreaks on hog farms are on the drawing board in a new Manitoba-led pilot project that could go nationwide. Coming out of a Thursday morning meeting with hog producers in Winnipeg, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced $482,158 from the AgriRisk Initiatives (ARI) arm of […] Read more
CFIA rethinking limits on travellers’ personal food imports
Consultation running until March
The federal government is considering changes to the amounts of food travellers can bring into Canada with them from other countries for their personal use. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Thursday announced public online consultations on the proposed new limits, which CFIA said would “better reflect the volume of foods typically moved by travellers […] Read more
Agropur pulls milk over sanitizer residue concerns
A case of “discomfort” reported by one consumer has led North America’s biggest dairy co-operative to pull certain batches of milk from sale in Quebec and Ontario. Agropur on Friday announced a voluntary recall of certain bagged and cartoned milks made at its Ottawa processing plant and sold under the Sealtest and L’ecole c’est nourrissant […] Read more
VIDO-InterVac joins swine fever fight
The University of Saskatchewan’s vaccine research and development arm is set to become Canada’s first non-government agency to work with the African swine fever virus. Saskatoon-based Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) will start work with the virus this month at its Containment Level 3-Agriculture (CL3-Ag) facility, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said […] Read more
New livestock transport rules include grace period for all sectors
Enforcement of new federal rules for livestock transport, due to take effect Feb. 20, will focus on handler education and awareness for the first two years — and across all affected livestock species, not just cattle. The now-amended Humane Transportation of Animals regulations are meant to focus on the time frames during which animals are […] Read more
Cattle producers get longer phase-in on new transport regs
New federal livestock transport regulations, due to come into force in February, will now roll out on a longer timeline for the beef and dairy cattle sectors. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has announced a “two-year transition period” for bovines, which is meant to provide “time to gather more data on effective solutions concerning the […] Read more
Ryding-Regency’s federal beef packing licenses cancelled
Citing “false or misleading information” given them during an E. coli probe, food safety officials have now permanently pulled the federal slaughter, processing and export licenses for Toronto’s Ryding-Regency Meat Packers and related companies. The cancellation, announced Monday, indefinitely prolongs what was already described as “critical processing capacity shortage” for the province’s cattle producers, leaving […] Read more
Allegations of U.S. peas, lentils passed off as Canadian
MarketsFarm — A company in the United States has alleged there are green peas and green lentils being shipped from the U.S. to Canada, then exported to China and India as being Canadian. Jeff Van Pevenage, president of Columbia Grain at Portland, Ore., first made the allegations to the Western Producer in September. He said […] Read more
New meat recall prolongs Ryding-Regency shutdown
Ryding-Regency Meat Packers remains shut down, making an already tight processing capacity situation event more challenging for Ontario farmers. The Toronto company, along with St. Ann’s Food, announced a recall Tuesday of a long list of its products because of concerns with E. coli O157:H7. More products were added to the recall on Thursday. The […] Read more
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