Globe and Mail - Food-safety system puts lives at risk, CMAJ says

All five of Canada's federal political parties have promised to beef up food safety if elected in May, but their pledges aren't enough to please a national medical policy group working to stoke the debate. In an editorial that warns Canadians that they "Eat at your own risk," the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Wednesday slammed the country's food-safety system for what it calls "major failings" related to the tracking of food-borne illnesses…

But some argue the food-safety system needs much more of an overhaul. "I hate to say that food safety in Canada is an accident, but the more I look at the system, the more I think that it's likely to be the case more often than not," said Rick Holley, a professor of food microbiology and food safety at the University of Manitoba, who until January sat on the CFIA's academic advisory board...

While he applauded the government for implementing most of the recommendations made in the Weatherill Report, the result of an independent investigation into the causes of a deadly listeriosis outbreak in 2008, he noted that the report's focus was narrow.

"Those recommendations were directed toward solving the problems associated with listeria. They were not directed towards solving the problems overall in the food-safety system," he said, adding: "The priorities with respect to food-borne illnesses seem to occur only after there is somebody who has died. That's not right."

One man disagrees. Ron Doering, an Ottawa lawyer and a former CFIA director, will give a speech on food safety at McGill University on Friday during the launch of the school's new Chair in Food Safety, the first of its kind in Canada. Although he agrees the system could use some improvement, Mr. Doering said it is not in a ramshackle state.