Canadian toxicologist Ian C. Munro of Cantox, and his wife, Jayne, announced a $1.5-million gift to kick start a food safety graduate program at McGill University in Montreal (that’s in Canada).

The Globe and Mail reports research priorities will be decided by an advisory panel of academics, government officials and industry representatives; and the food manufacturers Kellogg’s and Nestlé have pledged funds to the program, which will be headed by Canada’s first academic chair in food safety.

Probably not the first. And universities flounder when they start believing their own press releases.

Ron Doering, an Ottawa lawyer who was head of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency until 2002, has repeatedly defended Canada’s food safety system as one of the best in the world. But he admitted on Friday there is room for improvement.

Marilyn Knox, president of Nestlé Nutrition Canada, said the private sector and governments have struggled in the past to hire employees who are well-schooled in regulatory science as well as food safety issues. Most are trained in-house or sent to the United States for specialty courses.

Like my Food Safety Risk Analysis graduate course at Kansas State University, which is now being offered by distance every semester, and will soon be joined by three new distance courses in food safety trade, policy and culture, taught by some old friends, as part of a food safety policy graduate certificate.