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.