CFIA's reliance on third-party audits is killing people

“Most consumers are probably of the opinion that the CFIA is managing food safety among manufacturers in Canada – and they’re not, because of the lack of resources. The CFIA is not delivering on a proper food-safety mandate.”

oopsie doopsie

a facility in Pickering, Ont., linked to a deadly listeria outbreak this summer was deemed a lower priority for inspections. As a result, the site had not been visited by a CFIA inspector in the five years leading up to the outbreak. It was only after the outbreak that the CFIA says it discovered the plant had not been conducting testing for listeria in finished products or on food contact surfaces.

Using genome sequencing, public-health officials determined that the listeria strain involved in the outbreak sickened 20 people as far back as August, 2023. Three people died.

¯(ツ)/¯

/unjerk

Fuck this shit. We've underfunded our institutions, privatized our regulators, and made producers responsible for their own compliance.

I'd say that we deserve what we get, but the people who got sick and died from this shit clearly didn't.