Check out the OIMP April Training Bulletin here.
Highlights: Designing a Shelf Life Study, Upcoming 2012 OIMP Workshops, HSO and MOL Insider Workshops, Workplace Prevention and Safety Services, and more!
For a complete listing of upcoming industry events, visit www.oimp.ca
The credibility of Ontario’s meat processing industry is top of mind for the Ontario Independent Meat Processors (OIMP). They are a membership based organization that represents meat processors of all sizes and certifications across the province. OIMP has been working to build industry integrity lost when Aylmer Meat Packers was at the heart of a tainted meat scandal in 2003. The Aylmer plant was processing downer* animals after hours, a practice forbidden by both provincial and federal regulating bodies. The incident hurt relations with local markets in Ontario, OIMP Executive Director Laurie Nicol explains. ”We’ve done lots of work to regain integrity since that time. Even if we had one reported illness from an OMAFRA inspected plant, our industry would be crippled.” Read more »
The next story is ready for consumption! We’re dishing up a second-helping from the perspective of a meat processor encountering Ontario’s regulations. In the coming weeks, I will be bringing perspective from a range of other voices to the table. Look for views from OMAFRA, the Ontario Independent Meat Processors, and more.
Tony was an A&P meat manager with a dream of owning his own butcher shop. When he got his chance in 2006, Tony and his wife Donna took a leap and started Cottenie’s Country Fresh Meats. Cottenie’s is a butcher shop in Grey-Bruce County that sells direct to customers, restaurants, and through wholesale buyers. Virtually everything that passes through their doors is Ontario raised product. While most of their revenue comes from customer sales, one third was generated from making and wholesaling burger patties to West Grey Premium Beef.
The Forsyth Farm has been making and selling one hundred homemade meat pies every week for ten years. They raise their own lamb, have it slaughtered, and then process the trimmings into pies. Some pies are sold at the farm gate, but ninety percent are sold wholesale to a distributor. That is, until an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) noticed a freezer of unlabelled pies waiting to be packaged at the distributor. Under OMAFRA regulations, no meat products made in a municipally inspected site like the Forsyth’s can be processed and sold wholesale. Direct sales to customers or consumption in the home are permitted, but that didn’t prevent $10,000 worth of pies and other Forsyth Farms meat product from being tossed.
Hello eaters! 
Welcome to the first press of the Meat Press, a blog that will show what’s happening with meat in Ontario, from legislation to implementation in abattoirs and meat processing plants across the province.
Whether you’re a vegetarian, pescetarian, omnivore or carnivore, I invite you to pull up your chair and listen in on stories from farmers and legislators alike. Meat matters affect us all; whether it’s on your plate or fertilizing your spinach. Who feeds you, how and why are not easy questions to answer when it comes to cows and pigs. It got trickier in 2005 when The Meat Regulation 31/05 was introduced under the Food Safety and Quality Act (2001) to respond to a changing food safety environment. This regulation changed what it meant for meat processors to be compliant with laws related to the handling of meat – from slaughter to the point of sale.
