Canadian import pet food policy critique

Well, after more than two years, the Canadian government has come out with its pet food import policy.

At first glance, it appears as if it will be harder for US companies to import pet food into Canada. There are some important questions posed to Canadian importers for permits to import commercially prepared pet food.

But what questions are NOT being asked in this document?

What influence did the corporate multinationals have in shaping this policy? It’s worth another FOI request to find out, a request I will be filing shortly.

Will this policy be applied equally to large multinational corporations as well as to small producers?

How will this affect the import of a new burgeoning industry, the raw food pet food market?

There are new regulations requiring all raw products to be endorsed by a full time, salaried veterinarian. Now this is really where the problem lies. As things currently exist, most veterinarian clinics are stocking species inappropriate kibble. Veterinarians receive very little in the way of non pet food company training and are, by and large, biased against raw food for pets. So how does this help?

In Ontario, veterinarians are not only the sellers of multinational kibble, they are the owners in the veterinarian distribution company in Ontario that distributes ALL pet food products. The Veterinary Purchasing Company Limited in St. Mary's Ontario, is owned by a large number of vets in south-eastern Ontario. The only thing that keeps this from being a monopoly is that there is a small agency in Northwestern Ontario that services that region.

Most Ontario veterarinians are shareholders and as such, they receive regular dividends from this company. This is a clear conflict of interest on the part of veterinarinans. This needs to be challenged and changed in provincial regulation. Veterinarians should not be selling pet food or profiting from the distribution of these products.

No where in this document did I see the term “species appropriate” as a criteria for ingredients for pet food. That’s a vital link that needs to be among criteria for ANY pet food product. We have seen the negative health impact of high carbohydrate laden products and how detrimental they are to pet health, especially cats.

The main concern on the part of the feds appears to be BSE. Well, despite the best efforts at enforcement, BSE has been in the food system in North America for years and continues to be.

As for cleaning, storage and processing at individual plants, we saw clearly from the Maple Leaf listeria scandal, that despite there being a CFIA inspector at the plant, there was still contamination that occurred. How will things be different with more inspectors?

In Canada, unlike the US in which there was a recent change to FDA regulations, product recalls are still VOLUNTARY on the part of industry. The Canadian government has no authority under which to issue product recalls. This fact alone should be of concern to every Canadian when it concerns the safety of our food supply system.

Although there are questions and regulations in this document that need to be asked, it certainly falls short of what is really required to reign in the multinationals that make such excessive profits from pet food. Or the veterinarians that profit from the sale of species inappropriate kibble.

New US food safety site

US Federal site for food safety

All in one location, this site has many links with respect to food safety issues. If you type in "pet food" in the search box many different documents and sites will come up.

And....here's an important link: how to report a pet food problem:

How to report a pet food problem in the US

Pet Food: A Dog's Breakfast

It's the fall of 2009, and the CBC's Doc Zone re-broadcast this important documentary from Yap Films last week.

For those of you who haven't seen it, there's a blogger upload available at:

Pet Food: A Dog's Breakfast"

There's a very clear demonstration on how kibble is made, which may serve to convince those of you still feeding dry food why these formulas are completely upside-down nutritionally for our beloved feline carnivores.

Food Safety bill passes in the US House

Food Safety bill passes in US House of Representatives

At the end of July, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act, H.R. 2749. Now the ball is in the court for the Senate to pass similar legislation. There are some key things in here that are useful, if this act is actually enforced. As we saw from the pet food recalls and the plethora of recalls of processed food products since then, ensuring that there are adequate staff in place to enforce regulations is critical.

The article details several points in the legislation:

"• Inspections of high-risk food facilities at least every 6-12 months as well as inspection of lower-risk facilities at least once every 3 years (FDA currently averages inspections once every ten years.

• High-risk food facilities to submit the results of testing their finished food products for safety.

• All registered domestic and foreign food facilities to identify hazards and implement steps to prevent or reduce contaminants that may appear in food.

• Businesses to keep basic safety records in a standard format so they are easier for FDA to review.

• An FDA-mandated recall if a company fails to do so when requested.

• Food facilities selling to American consumers to register with the FDA and pay annual fees.

• The FDA to gather information and run a pilot project to set up a method to trace food back to its source in the case of contamination. Such a “traceback” system would have to allow FDA to trace food back to its source within 2 business days."

A number of these recommendations were directly a result of the pet food recalls. Remember how no one could identify the source of the melamine? And how the FDA was unable to issue recalls for tainted pet food products? At least these reforms are something and it's doubtful that these would have been passed in the Bush era.

Greater oversight and further legislative reforms are needed however. One-size fits all policies don't work in the context of our food supply system, particularly with respect to small organic farmers -- there are too many variables.

Obama Administration bans use of antibiotics in healthy livestock

Article excerpt from Organic Consumers site/

Good news. Fantastic that Obama is dealing with so many of these kinds of every day issues that you know the Bush Administration would have NEVER even have considered. Of course it makes no sense to administer antibiotics to healthy livestock. Do you think his staffers and colleagues are reading articles like this one by Michael Pollan?

Our Decrepit Food Factories/

I'm careful, when dealing with local butchers and farmers, to ensure that I am dealing with people who do NOT administer antibiotics to the chickens, rabbits, turkey and cornish hens that I buy for my cats' food. I certainly don't want them being exposed to unnecessary antibiotics as part of their daily menu. All the more reason to ask questions and build a good relationship with your local farmer through your local farmers' market so you are familiar with their farming practices.

New Canadian pet food policy?

Well, two years after the Menu Foods pet food recalls, the Canadian government is finally getting around to doing something in the way of regulating imports. Since that time we have seen continous recalls of food products -- both pet food and human food -- for various kinds of contaminants and toxins.

We have seen a flurry of press releases and announcements from PM Harper but no detailed concrete legislative action around insuring the safety of our food supply system in a world of globalized trade. Hmm...Harper's "action plan" -- how will this be enforced?

Will the government actually respond to public complaints about ingredients in pet food? Where is there mention of any kind of database tracking system for documenting problems with these products?

Are they even asking the right questions when there are so many issues with processed food products for pets and humans? What role did the lobbyists and industry play in this process?

Harper's spin on food safety

The new policies, which came into effect July 1, 2009 are not actually available for public scrutiny at the moment. Keep checking this link -- when the policy is finally released this is where it can be downloaded.
AHPD-DSAE-IE-2001-9-6
Pet Food

Chemnutra pleads guilty to melamine in pet food

Chemnutra was identified as the source of melamine for the 2007 pet food recalls. The recalls occurred because all the major multinational food companies were using the same supplier. The Millers, a married couple who are the CEOs of ChemNutra, are getting fined and may be going to prison. So that lets the big multinationals off the hook -- the ones who were clamouring for a cheaper price on gluten. Never mind that glutens are not an advisable source of protein for cat.... or that many people have developed gluten sensitivities.

So now the CEOs of the multinationals can say, well see, it wasn't us. Just like Royal Canin is claiming that they were "victims" of fraud themselves. I don't think this argument will stand up well as a legal defense.

Here's the PDF of their guilty plea:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/06/miller_plea.pdf

What's even more troubling is how pervasive melamine is in our food supply system -- not only wheat and corn gluten in pet food, but biscuits, infant formula, chocolate bars, Canadian cocoa, coffee...the list goes on. And when the FDA thought people weren't looking (yes it was true everyone was watching the US presidential race at the time) they quietly APPROVED melamine for the food supply system? Hello? Poison in our food and our kitties' food is okay?

I'm not joking. You can read the FDA report here.
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2008/ucm116960.htm