Today I will be appearing at the Sub-Committee on Food Safety of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

I am looking forward to sharing my insights into last year’s tragedy and what we have learned since the listeria outbreak. In preparation for my testimony we have prepared a detailed backgrounder on the events of last August.  

I will also be advocating in support of a stronger role for regulators in raising the standards on food safety for all food processors. We believe it is critical that there be one set of tough Federal standards premised on science-based policy that provides for consistent application and enforcement through inspection both nationally and at our borders. Further information on our position can be found here.

The Food Safety hearings will be broadcast on CPAC (http://www.cpac.ca) and I invite you to tune in and continue the conversation on the blog.

Last night the Standing Committee on Agriculture & Agri-Food Parliamentary Sub-committee on Food Safety, which has been assembled to study the food safety system in Canada and the August 2008 recall, set its initial work schedule.  This is good news. Improving our system of food safety protection is important work for Canadian legislators.

I’m going to be asking to appear early in the hearing process with Randy Huffman, our Chief Food Safety Officer.  All of us at Maple Leaf learned a lot through the tragedy of last year’s Listeria outbreak.  We owe it to the families of those who died and the thousands who were affected to share those lessons in the interests of a higher level of food safety in Canada.

When we appear before the committee, we are going to lay out, chapter and verse, what happened last August.  We also have a number of suggestions we intend to raise about how the industry overall needs to raise its game going forward as well as about the important role government policy and regulation should play.

Along with the Weatherill Investigation, this Parliamentary process offers an opportunity for Canada to jump to the forefront of food safety and I’m extremely supportive of that.