With the new food safety regulations around the United States, the future looks bright for safe food production in food businesses. However, one business owner, Garth Jarvis of Jarvis Meats in Gladstone, says that the even though he understands the good intentions of the regulations, the new rules are affecting the running of the businesses.
Jarvis and many other food companies around Manitoba attended a public consultation session that discussed the affects of the food safety regulations. All food safety regulation in the province is now under review as the province moves to proclaim its Food Safety Act in 2015 and will affect any facility where food is handled, processed, manufactured, prepared, packaged, stored or distributed, including abattoirs and dairy farms.
The new regulations means that food processors and distributors will be required to get additional licensing and procedural requirements, including demands for written food safety programs, training and documenting procedures used by processors to ensure safe food handling. This means there will be a bigger expense for businesses as they hire more staff for paperwork purposes and other roles required to meet the regulations.
Even though the regulations are set with the purest of intentions, business owners are finding it difficult to completely agree to this. Hopefully the discussion on the food safety regulations will help in a mutual understanding between the parties for a better way of overseeing food safety in the United States.
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