Final Report of an Audit Conducted In Four European Union Member States February 3rd Through February 21st, 2014
Evaluating The Food Safety Systems Governing The Production of Beef And Beef Products For Export To Canada
This page has been archived
Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or record-keeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please contact us to request a format other than those available.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Audit Objective, Scope and Methodology
- 3. Legal Basis for the Audit and Audit Standards
- 4. Background
- 5. Competent Authority and Official Controls
- 6. Slaughter/Processing Controls
- 7. HACCP Plan and Pre-Requisite Programs Controls
- 8. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Specified Risk Material (SRM) Controls
- 9. Microbiological Controls
- 10. Chemical Residues Controls
- 11. Closing Meeting
- 12. Conclusions and Need for Further Actions
-
13. Annexes
- Annex 1: DG-SANTÉ (Directorate General for Health and Food Safety) - Summary of the proposed action plans to the recommendations from the CFIA February 2014 audit of four European Union member states food safety systems governing the production of beef products
- Annex 2: Final report of an audit conducted in Ireland February 3rd through February 6th, 2014 evaluating the food safety systems governing the production of beef and beef products for export to Canada and proposed action plans to the recommendations
- Annex 3: Final report of an audit conducted in Sweden February 7th through February 11th, 2014 evaluating the food safety systems governing the production of beef and beef products for export to Canada and proposed action plans to the recommendations
- Annex 4: Final report of an audit conducted in France February 12th through February 17th, 2014 evaluating the food safety systems governing the production of beef and beef products for export to Canada and proposed action plans to the recommendations
- Annex 5: Final report of an audit conducted in Italy February 18th through February 20th, 2014 evaluating the food safety systems governing the production of beef and beef products for export to Canada and proposed action plans to the recommendations
Abbreviations and Special Terms Used In the Report
- BSE
- Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
- CA
- Competent Authority
- CAR
- Corrective Action Request/Report
- CCA
- Central Competent Authority
- CCP
- Critical Control Point
- DG
- Director General
- CFIA
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency
- DAFM
- Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Central Competent Authority in Ireland)
- DDPP
- Directions départementales de la protection des populations (France)
- DGAL
- « Direction Générale de l'Alimentation » (Central Competent Authority in France)
- DVPHFSCBHP
- Department of Veterinary Public Health, Food Safety and Collegial Bodies for Health Protection (Central Competent Authority in Italy)
- E. coli
- Escherichia coli
- E. coli O157
- Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Escherichia coli O157/NM, enterohaemorrhagic, shiga toxin producing strains of Escherichia coli.
- EC
- European Commission
- EU
- European Union
- FVO
- European Commission Directorate General for Health & Consumers – Food and Veterinary Office
- GHP
- Good Hygiene Practices
- GMP
- Good Manufacturing Practices
- HACCP
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point
- OIE
- World Organization for Animal Health
- OV
- Official veterinarian
- NFA
- National Food Agency (Central Competent Authority in Sweden)
- MS
- European Union Member States
- MOP
- Meat Hygiene Manual of Procedures
- Salmonella
- Salmonella spp.
- SANTÉ
- European Commission Directorate General for Health & Consumers
- SRM
- Specified Risk Material
- SOP
- Standard Operating Procedures
- SSOP
- Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures
- VIC
- Veterinarian in Charge
Executive Summary
This report describes the outcome of an on-site audit of the European Union (EU) beef inspection systems that was conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) from February 3rd to February 21st, 2014.
This audit had two main objectives:
- To conduct an assessment of the beef inspection systems in the EU. The goal was to verify that each member state (MS) continues to maintain a food safety system for beef that is equivalent to that of Canada with the capacity to produce products that are safe, unadulterated, and properly labelled.
- To evaluate the programs and controls implemented in the EU to determine if exports of beef meat products to Canada can be resumed. This included the review of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Specific Risk Materials (SRM) controls and microbiological controls, especially as it relates to E. coli O157.
The audit scope included ten (10) beef slaughter establishments located in four different MSs, namely France, Ireland, Italy and Sweden. Additionally, the CFIA auditors visited central competent authority (CCA) headquarters in each MS.
Determinations concerning the effectiveness of the MS's food safety systems were conducted by the evaluation of the performance within the following six key areas:
- Competent authority and official controls;
- Slaughter/processing controls, including animal welfare controls;
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems, including the development, implementation and maintenance of HACCP plans, pre-requisite programs and sanitation controls;
- BSE/SRM controls;
- Microbiological controls, including the testing program for E. coli O157; and
- Chemical residues controls.
Overall, the audit showed that food safety systems in the EU MSs are performing as intended in an adequate manner and generally demonstrate an acceptable implementation of controls for all areas described above except for implementation of controls over E. coli O157 in raw beef products. Multiple audit findings in one establishment located in one of the MSs indicate a need for improvement of CA oversight related to HACCP Systems. The CFIA requests the CCA to follow up on all deficiencies noted in this establishment and provide the CFIA with corrective action plan developed and implemented by the operator. The CFIA also requests the CCA to verify if this action plan has been implemented and is effective in addressing all findings.
In other establishments visited, issues relative to each different key area were found. The CFIA would request the competent authorities in 4 MSs to take appropriate actions to fix those issues in all establishments under their supervision.
Overall, the auditors determined that there is a scope for improvement in the implementation of Slaughter/processing controls, HACCP Systems and SRM removal. As these findings appear to be systemic, the CFIA requests the Director General of the European Commission Directorate General for Health & Consumers (DG-SANTÉ) to make all MSs aware of these issues and ensure an appropriate follow up.
The audit process underscores the need for technical discussions to occur between the DG-SANTÉ and the CFIA before resuming the export of beef meat products from 19 EU MSs to Canada. Specifically, the following needs further discussion.
- Canadian E. coli O157 policy requirements
- Supervisory oversight in establishments
- Chemical Residue Monitoring Program
- Date modified: