Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Members & Subscribers
    • Benefits for CMA Members
    • CPD Credits for Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription Prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Members & Subscribers
    • Benefits for CMA Members
    • CPD Credits for Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription Prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
Editorial

Food in Canada: Eat at your own risk

Ken Flegel, Noni E. MacDonald, Jane Coutts, Paul C. Hébert and Matthew B. Stanbrook
CMAJ December 13, 2011 183 (18) E1274; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.110453
Ken Flegel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Noni E. MacDonald
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jane Coutts
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Paul C. Hébert
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Matthew B. Stanbrook
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Canada’s public and private sectors are not doing enough to prevent food-borne illnesses.1 Among the major failings are inadequate active surveillance systems, an inability to trace foods from “farm to fork” and a lack of incentives to keep food safe along the “farm to fork” pathway. The result? Eleven million or more episodes of food-related gastroenteritis in Canada every year — a crude estimate at best, with one report suggesting that fewer than 1 in 200 episodes are reported.2

A recent evaluation of food safety in 17 countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, entitled World Ranking: 2010 food safety peformance, ranked Canada in the middle with regard to rate of control of some but not all food-borne pathogens.3 Fortunately, most instances of food poisoning are mild, but among vulnerable patients, such as the frail elderly, they can be serious and even lethal. Furthermore, food-borne illnesses represent a substantial health and economic burden to Canada, at an average cost of $1089 per case.4

Our lacklustre effort at detecting, controlling and reporting infections caused by food is problematic. When contaminations are confirmed, we are often unable to trace the origins of the contamination along the food chain.4 What we need are more active forms of surveillance using common high standards for sampling foods throughout the food chain, for laboratory processing, for rapid removal of foods not meeting the standards and for reporting of laboratory results to the public. For the frail elderly and chronically ill, known high-risk microbes like Listeria are especially problematic — we should aim specifically at zero tolerance for ready-to-eat foods for this population.

The same World Ranking report rated Canada’s food industries and government agencies 15th out of 16 on traceability.3 Traceability — knowing where food originates, how it is processed and what path it takes to the consumer — is another important aspect of food safety. Without traceability, it is often impossible to determine where contaminated food originated or where along its route unsafe practices put the public in danger.

What is worrisome is that this is the situation almost three years after the listeriosis outbreak in 2008, when at least 20 people died as a consequence of eating contaminated meats.5 We now have a few more inspectors, some improvements in process and a commitment to be more transparent with inspection reports, but we still depend on company insiders overseeing inspections with no uniform national standards or process benchmarks.

Canadians are usually good at regulation. Canada’s pragmatic yet stringent regulation of financial institutions ensured that the economic downturn has been less severe here than in other countries. In health, our blood system’s surveillance programs and ability to trace products from “vein to vein” is another fine model.

Canada needs to adopt rigorous food safety standards that value food safety over profitability,6 and enforce them with higher-quality and more active surveillance and inspection measures that put more emphasis on higher-risk foods.4

No system can afford to trace and inspect 100% of foods. Thus, industry must assume primary responsibility for safe food production, processing and distribution. But, government policies and incentives are needed to promote safety where industry has no reason to do so. For instance, finding cost-effective incentives for poultry farmers to decrease Salmonella and Campylobacter in their flocks may decrease human infections.

Private and public oversight of food safety should be reformed to ensure sufficiently uniform practices across the country so that we can make comparisons among different regions, suppliers and types of food. Incentives need to be in place to encourage improvement in food safety at each step. Information on outbreaks of food-borne illnesses — including their possible causes and actions taken to stop them — should be quickly and publicly reported to provide timely feedback to food producers and inspectors, and also to educate the public. Canada should also work with international partners for effective monitoring of the food we import.

Food will never be sterile and risk-free. However, without changes, many people will be harmed and some will die because of preventable contamination.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: See www.cmaj.ca/site/misc/cmaj_staff.xhtml. None declared by Jane Coutts.

References

  1. ↵
    1. Attaran A,
    2. MacDonald N,
    3. Stanbrook M,
    4. et al
    . Listeriosis is the least of it. CMAJ 2008;179:739–40.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  2. ↵
    1. Thomas MK,
    2. Majowicz SE,
    3. Pollari F,
    4. et al
    . Burden of acute gastrointestinal illness in Canada, 1999–2007: interim summary of NSAGI activities. Can Commun Dis Rep 2008;34:8–15.
    OpenUrlPubMed
  3. ↵
    1. Charlebois S,
    2. MacKay G
    . World ranking: 2010 food safety peformance. Saskatoon (SK): Johnson–Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy; 2010. Available: www.schoolofpublicpolicy.sk.ca/_documents/_publications_reports/food_safety_final.pdf (accessed 2011 Mar. 17).
  4. ↵
    1. Holley RA
    . Smarter inspection will improve food safety in Canada. CMAJ 2010; 182:471–3.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  5. ↵
    Lessons learned report: Health Canada’s response to the 2008 listeriosis outbreak. Ottawa (ON): Health Canada, Health Products and Food Branch; 2009. Available: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/pubs/securit/listeriosis-eng.php (accessed 2011 Mar. 17).
  6. ↵
    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization. Assuring food safety and quality: guidelines for strengthening national food control systems. Available: www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/capacity/en/Englsih_Guidelines_Food_control.pdf (accessed 2011 Mar. 17).
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 183 (18)
CMAJ
Vol. 183, Issue 18
13 Dec 2011
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Food in Canada: Eat at your own risk
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Food in Canada: Eat at your own risk
Ken Flegel, Noni E. MacDonald, Jane Coutts, Paul C. Hébert, Matthew B. Stanbrook
CMAJ Dec 2011, 183 (18) E1274; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.110453

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Food in Canada: Eat at your own risk
Ken Flegel, Noni E. MacDonald, Jane Coutts, Paul C. Hébert, Matthew B. Stanbrook
CMAJ Dec 2011, 183 (18) E1274; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.110453
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Le sujet de l’heure : l’accès aux soins de santé au Canada
  • Integration of midwifery care in Canada
  • CMAJ’s new guidance on the reporting of race and ethnicity in research articles
Show more Éditorial

Similar Articles

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • CPD credits
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
  • Accessibiity
  • CMA Civility Standards
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2023, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

Powered by HighWire