Meat producers in the NWT may soon have new opportunities to sell their products locally thanks to proposed new regulations.
The territory’s Department of Health and Social Services is asking for public feedback on new rules that would allow private meat producers to sell their products directly to consumers in the territory through restaurants, farmers markets, farm gate sales and other similar outlets. The proposed regulations are laid out in a discussion paper prepared for the consultation.
“Today, a permit under the Food Establishment Regulations is required to sell food and that food must be liable to inspection unless otherwise exempted under the regulations,” the paper reads. “There is no current mechanism to inspect meat from locally raised animals, and therefore it may not be sold to the public.”
The territory had meat safety regulations in the past, but they were repealed in 2009, in large part because there were no slaughterhouses or processing facilities in the territory.
The new rules would not apply to the sale of wild game, fish or reindeer.
Despite the promise of new regulations, the NWT’s unique situation might not make it possible to inspect all locally-produced meat.
“Creating meat safety regulations in the Northwest Territories presents a unique challenge, given the small size and scale of meat producers compared to most jurisdictions in Canada,” the paper reads. “Regulations in the NWT will need to allow for some flexibility for small producers to slaughter and distribute uninspected meat for sale direct to consumers and/or retailers within the NWT, while ensuring all necessary operational and safety standards are followed and public health is protected.”
Among the questions put forth by the paper, the document asks if consumers would be comfortable buying meat that hasn’t been inspected, and how they would like to be informed by vendors that their meat hasn’t been inspected.
The paper proposes a framework based on permits, where producers could purchase a permit to slaughter and handle meat that would last a few weeks, a season, or a whole year.
The Department of Health and Social Services is accepting public comments until Feb. 22. Comments can be emailed to meatsafetyregs@gov.nt.ca.