Auditor says Saskatchewan needs to beef up meat inspections

Saskatchewan‘s auditor says the province needs to do a better job of monitoring meat inspection. 

“We found that Saskatchewan law allows the sale of meat to consumers without the meat being inspected,” explained Bonnie Lysyk. 

Lysyk said in a new report that Saskatchewan is the only province where meat safety is handled by two ministries – Health and Agriculture. 

Meat from the 76 Health inspected plants is not inspected and the actual amount of meat handled by those plants is not tracked.  

In those plants, Lysyk says inspections are done annually, but only for cleanliness and its ability to keep the meat cold.  

“These are facilities that have been in operation for many years in Saskatchewan and our information points to the fact that to date we haven’t been able to identify food borne illnesses as a result of these slaughter facilities,” said health minister Dustin Duncan. 

He explained those plants service a niche market – primarily smaller farmers for their own use – and making changes could lead to bigger problems.  

“Would that mean that people are doing that processing on their own facilities, their own farms, where we have no way of monitoring the type of processing being done,” said Duncan 

The remaining plants are fully inspected, including the meat. Three are inspected federally by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 

University of Regina biology professor Chris Yost said federal food safety laws are so stringent and is not sure why provincial laws are not as well. 

“Granted these are smaller plants, but people are still going to be consuming this meat,” Yost said. “You would expect the same kind of safety they would get from a federally inspected plant.” 

Some of the legislation dates back to 1966 and parts were last updated in 1994, so Lysyk suggests there is some work to do.  

“We recommend that the government assess the risks related to uninspected meat and consider whether Saskatchewan’s regulation for the production of meat needs updating,” she said.  

The province plans to take a look at it especially since cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency mean food safety will become fully the province’s responsibility in 2014.