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The new investments will improve the Government's ability to prevent, detect and respond to future foodborne illness outbreaks. Among other improvements, the Government will:
• hire 166 new food safety staff with 70 focusing on ready-to-eat-meat facilities;
• provide 24/7 availability of health risk assessment teams to improve support to food safety investigations;
• improve coordination among federal and provincial departments and agencies;
• improve communications to vulnerable populations before and during a foodborne illness outbreak;
• improve tracking of potential foodborne illness outbreaks through a national surveillance system;
• improve detection methods for Listeria monocytogenes and other hazards in food to reduce testing time and enable more rapid response during food safety investigations, as well as expanding the Government's ability to do additional Listeria testing; and
• initiate a third-party audit to make sure Canada's food inspection system has the right resources dedicated to the right priorities.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/newcom/2009/20090911e.shtml
