Tag Archives: trade

Trade seems bigger concern than human health as U.S. halts recalled Alberta beef

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In yet another example of the U.S. setting higher food safety standards than Canadians, the huge XL Foods slaughterhouse in Edmonton has been banned from shipping products across the border.

The move coincides with a Canadian Food Inspection Agency report that found systemic failures throughout the XL plant, something CFIA inspectors apparently didn’t notice.

Meanwhile, Alberta Health Services continues to investigate whether eight current E. coli O157 cases in the province — four in Edmonton, three in Calgary, and one in central Alberta — are linked to the meat products, said Dr. Gloria Keays, medical officer of health for the Edmonton Zone. The province will share lab results with the CFIA, Keays said.

Verlyn Olson, Alberta’s agriculture minister, told the Edmonton Journal he is “concerned” about reports that the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service halted all products imported from XL Foods, but is also convinced the situation will soon be resolved.

“Work is being done to rectify the situation, and we hope and expect the border will open up quickly,” Olson said. “When these things happen, we deal with them.” 

Food safety head honored by Queen

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Now that the New Zealand Food Safety Authority has been gutted absorbed into the Ministry of Agriculture, former head honcho and veterinarian Andrew McKenzie has been awarded the Queen’s Service Order in the New Year’s honor for services to the state.??

Dr McKenzie worked as chief executive of NZFSA from 2007 to 2010 and moved from Wellington this year to retire in Greytown.

"We lived in Wellington for about 25 years and we really liked it, but the weather was quite lousy and it was never very warm so we thought here would be a nice place to retire because it’s got its own microclimate and it’s not too far away from Wellington, so we’re really happy here."

??Dr McKenzie started life in the food safety industry as a vet at a meatworks before moving on to bigger and better things such as serving as the chairman of the Meat and Hygiene Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and chairing the World Organisation for Animal Health’s Animal Production Food Safety Group.?

His biggest achievement while working at NZFSA was negotiating trade deals with Europe.

??"I sorted out some quite big trade deals with Europe, which had a major influence on the international standard for meat hygiene," Dr McKenzie said. "A lot of countries put up technical barriers in trade and that’s what I’ve spent my career fighting."

I prefer this 2008 photo.

WHO says world prone to foodborne disease outbreaks

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The world has become more vulnerable to outbreaks of disease caused by contaminated food because of growing global trade, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.

Investigating these outbreaks has also become more difficult because food can contain ingredients from around the world and is transported through a complex global supply chain, top WHO officials said.

"Outbreaks of food-borne disease have become an especially large menace in a world bound together by huge volumes of international trade and travel," said WHO director-general Margaret Chan at a conference in Singapore on improving preparedness against global health threats.

"Problems nowadays can arise from any link or kink in a convoluted food chain," Chan said.