The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has announced that it will implement new monetary penalties to reinforce its system of safeguards to prevent the spread of BSE. Through amendments to the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) Regulations pursuant to the AMPS ACT, CFIA inspectors will be authorised to impose monetary penalties on operations which violate elements of Canada's system of BSE safeguards. With these changes, monetary penalties could be imposed for violations of two key safeguards: the BSE feed ban and requirements for the removal of specified risk material (SRM) from food products for humans. This will complement the monetary penalties that are already in place for failure to report suspected and actual cases of BSE.
"Canada employs a comprehensive suite of internationally-recognised, science-based measures to effectively minimize the likelihood of exposure, amplification and spread of BSE within the cattle population and to protect consumers from the associated human health risks," said Andy Mitchell, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. "The ability to issue monetary penalties will provide CFIA inspectors with an additional enforcement tool to respond to violations of the safeguards in a more timely, effective and efficient manner."
To date, enforcement tools available to the CFIA have been limited to warnings, seizure of products suspected of or known to be out of compliance, suspension or cancellation of permits, and prosecutions.
