Canada-Meat Inspection so bad another crisis waiting to happen.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency cannot be sure how many meat inspectors are stationed at plants across the country, according to an agency briefing note released to parliamentarians as they kick off their investigation into the state of food safety in the wake of the listeriosis outbreak.

The document didn’t sit well with members of the special parliamentary committee, who held their inaugural meeting on Wednesday probing last year’s deadly listeriosis outbreak traced back to a processing meat plant in operated by Maple Leaf Foods.

Malcolm Allen, an NDPMP, called the admission "astounding."

"Any business can tell you how many people do specific jobs in their organization and I am astounded that the CFIA cannot tell Canadians how many people inspect our meat supply," he said

"This is unacceptable."

The new admission comes despite assurances in the same document that the number of inspectors dedicated to meat inspection has risen every year for the last decade.

The CFIA cited a supporting chart showing the number of inspectors now tops 3,000, up from about 1,900 a decade ago. But this includes employees who don’t do meat inspections.

"Given that there are a number of inspector positions that are multi-purpose, in that they do not focus on one commodity, the CFIA’s current tracking and information systems do not allow us to accurately identify all inspection staff devoted to meat inspection," the briefing note states.