Federal food inspection agency looking for sources of feed contamination

DENNIS BUECKERT

Canadian Press

1/16/2004

OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is looking for answers after U.S. inspectors reported finding contamination in animal feed from 14 Canadian plants.

The federal agency is reviewing its entire feed regulatory system to determine what enhancements may be needed, said spokesman Sergio Tolusso in an interview Friday.

"In some cases we're really hard-pressed to determine what the source of the contamination might have been," said Tolusso.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued "import alerts" on 14 companies after inspectors discovered animal materials in feed that was supposed to contain only vegetable matter.

Materials found included hair, muscle tissue, blood and feathers.

Some industry officials expressed frustration with the alerts which allow products from the companies in question to be impounded without examination.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the latest measures reflect politics and protectionism rather than science.

He said the alerts were issued on the basis of microscopic inspection not DNA testing, and the quantities of contamination were so minute as to pose no risk.

"Science has been left at the doorstep," he said.

Colleen Vancha of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, one of the companies on the list, said it has received no direct communication from the F.D.A., and is looking for information.

Critics said the latest problems prove the ineffectiveness of Canada's current feed regulations, which permit the use of certain types of slaughterhouse waste in certain types of feed.

"The way the feed mills are set up it's impossible to really guarantee there wouldn't be cross-contamination," said Mike McBane of the Canadian Health Coalition.

"That's why we've been hollering for a total ban on the recycling of animal protein back to feed animals."

Vancha said that in the case of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the feed came from a grain-handling plant that contains no animals or animal feed operations.

Tolusso said one possible source of contamination is the vehicles and conveyances used to carry feed. Currently these are not subject to inspection under the federal regime.

Michael Hansen, senior research associate at the U.S. Consumers Union, said it would be much easier to prevent contamination if there were a clear-cut ban on feeding mammal protein to food animals.

Hansen suggested that feed from U.S. operations is probably no purer than that from Canada.

"If they looked at plants with the level of scrutiny that they're looking at the Canadian plants I wonder if they might find the same thing happening on the U.S. side of the border."

The plants on the list: Agricore United of Carseland, Alta., Archer Daniels Midland of Lethbridge, Alta., Benge Foods of Nipawin, Sask., Cascadia Terminal of Vancouver, Dawn Food Products of Saskatoon, Louis Dreyfus Canada of Calgary, Macleod Feed Mill of Fort Macleod, Alta., Masterfeeds of Picture Butte, Alta., New Life Feeds of Lethbridge, Alta., Pacific Elevators of Vancouver, Ritchie Smith Feeds of Abbotsford, B.C., Puratone Corp. Medicated Animal Feeds of Bassano, Alta., Saskatchewan Wheat Pool of Vancouver and Unifeed of Lethbridge.