FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2003
Ontario meat safety at risk from inexperienced, ill-trained inspectors, OPSEU warns
TORONTO - Ontario’s meat safety is at risk because dozens of inexperienced, ill-trained meat inspectors may not spot abnormal symptoms in animals being slaughtered, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union warns.
The Ontario government employs 10 permanent and 130 contract meat inspectors at 204 plants that slaughter meat for the Ontario market. The annual turnover rate for the contract meat inspectors is 32 per cent. Their wages are frozen at 1993 levels. New hires receive four weeks of training before working alone on kill
floors.
“You don’t learn how to be a meat inspector in four weeks,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “A good inspector needs the eye of a veterinarian. He or she needs the technical skills to dissect tissues to collect lab samples. We fear that inexperienced, barely-trained inspectors will not catch BSE, E.coli, or other
threats, simply because they can’t read the signs.”
The 2001 provincial auditor’s report ripped the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for multiple failures in its food safety programs, including meat inspection. At that time, the Ministry told the auditor that: “The success of this process is highly dependent on recruitment, retention, and training
of staff. Therefore, the Ministry has commissioned a study to review ways of improving program effectiveness through an enhanced human-resources strategy for the meat inspection program.”
“No strategy has never emerged,” said Casselman. “If the Eves government really cared about food safety, it would treat meat inspectors like the professionals we need them to be.”
Inexperienced inspectors may be subject to intimidation by plant operators, she said.
“It’s a big decision to stop a kill or say an animal may be unfit for human consumption,” Casselman said. “These decisions put thousands of dollars on the line for plant operators. How is a person with four weeks’ training going to face down someone who’s been running a slaughterhouse for 20 years? You need inspectors
who will stand their ground because they know they’re right.”
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For more information:
Randy Robinson (416) 448-7441; (416) 788-9134
Katie FitzRandolph (416) 448-7440; (416) 788-9057
