Many members are happy for various reasons, one that stands out is Gary and Gezina celebrating 55 years of marriage. I was going to say “happily married bliss”, but the editor (Gezina) scratched that out.

Topic:Food Chain and COVID 19

Speaker & Facilitator: Our own Peter Pauker, who worked with the government in food safety and inspection for over 30 years. 

 

Peter gave a very informative overview of the food industry and processing. Federal food regulations are handled by the CFIA via the Safe Food for Canadians Act and Food and Drug Act.

 

Overall, we can place faith in the stringent regulations and safety of our food chain. New issues arise in a pandemic such as the meat processing plant closures. Meat processing plants are governed either by Provincial legislation (smaller, local slaughterhouses) or federally (large plants that supply large supermarket and restaurant chains. Federal regulations are quite involved and very expensive to implement, therefore they try to process as much meat as possible which leads to cramped conditions. Note that we aren’t getting salmonella, the workers are getting coronavirus.

 

Peter answered our many questions and peppered his talk with many facts and dates, he either has great crib notes or a sharp memory.