Posts tagged Listeriosis

Meat packing plant caught fudging ‘best before’ dates

By Joanna Smith, The Toronto Star
A Toronto meat packing plant was caught fudging the “best before” dates on packages of ham about a month before it had to recall peppercorn salami when samples tested positive for potentially deadly bacteria.  [More...]

Food Issues

Ottawa Citizen
The federal government continues to have some explaining to do about Canada’s food-safety system.  [More...]

Minister defends meat-inspection system

By Christina Spencer, Sun Media
The federal government defended its ready-to-eat meat-inspection system Wednesday after charges that it upholds a higher standard for meats destined for the United States than for foods consumed only in Canada.  [More...]

Walkom: Tainted meat and red tape

By Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star
In theory, everyone likes getting rid of red tape. When federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced earlier this month that the Conservative government would set up a commission to do just that, many Canadians cheered.  [More...]

Minister defends food inspection system

By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz defended Canada’s food-safety system yesterday after internal records surfaced showing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is scrambling to maintain an increased presence at meat processing plants to adhere to American food-safety standards.  [More...]

U.S. had to force Canada to beef up meat inspections: union

The Canadian Press
The union representing the country’s food inspectors says Canada increased its meat-plant inspection schedule only after complaints from the United States.  [More...]

Questions raised about gap in food inspection standards

By Gloria Galloway, Globe and Mail
As investigators probe an unusual number of listeriosis cases in Ontario this year alongside a new tainted-meat recall, food inspectors have raised fresh questions about gaps between Canadian and U.S. food safety regimes.  [More...]

U.S. regulations forcing more meat inspections in Canada

By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is scrambling to maintain an increased presence at dozens of large meat-processing plants after auditors from the United States Department of Agriculture found inspections were too infrequent to meet U.S. food-safety standards, newly released internal records show.  [More...]

Another listeria scare at a Toronto meat processing plant

Listeriosis cases linked to deli meat

By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
Ontario’s chief medical officer confirmed Friday a genetic match between listeriosis cases and contaminated deli meat produced at a federally regulated meat plant — the first match since Canada was rocked in the summer of 2008 with a deadly outbreak.  [More...]

Listeria spike triggers hospitalizations

By Robert Cribb, The Toronto Star
Two Ontarians were hospitalized — and another two deaths are being investigated — in relation to a listeria outbreak traced to a Toronto deli meat manufacturer.  [More...]

Video: Chris Olsen on Maple Leaf recall

CTV British Columbia

Video: Inspecting Ottawa’s food inspector promise

Global National

Kellogg’s Warned Over Listeria in Eggo Plant

Food Safety News
Sometimes you just want to put a problem behind you, but it just sticks around like duct tape.
A new “Warning Letter” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to the Kellogg’s Company raises questions about whether the Listeria problem at its Atlanta Eggo plant is truly resolved. [More...]

Food inspectors ask: what’s in your sandwich?

MPs can vote for food safety even during prorogation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa – On behalf of the 11 to 13 million Canadians who are sickened every year by the food they eat, the food inspectors union delivered an electronic “sandwich” to every MP today which contains critical information about the risks Canadians face by eating everyday [...]

Feeling queasy

Ottawa Citizen Editorial 
It has been 18 months since 22 Canadians died after eating tainted meat and, despite government assurances that food safety systems are more effective than ever, consumers ought to be skeptical.  [More...]

Government gets failing grade on food safety

By Christina Spencer, Parliamentary Bureau SUN News Service
OTTAWA — The union representing federal meat inspectors has given the government a failing grade for moving too slowly to boost food safety since the listeriosis outbreak of 2008 that killed at least 22 people.  [More]

Federal Government gets failing grade on food safety

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa – Inaction on food safety has earned the federal government a failing grade six months after the Prime Minister’s special investigator Sheila Weatherill tabled recommendations on how to prevent a repeat of the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis outbreak which killed 22 people and sickened many more.
A mid-term report card on the government’s [...]

Mould, slime found at Listeria-stricken meat plant weeks after heavy cleaning

By: Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA – Newly released inspection reports reveal that a top-to-bottom scrubbing after a deadly listeriosis outbreak apparently didn’t fully cleanse a Maple Leaf Foods plant of mould, slime and meat debris, and that inspectors found a troubling lack of hygiene at the company’s Toronto facility just weeks after it reopened [...]

Science union calls for quick action on food inspection services

The union representing scientists working for the federal government is calling for an immediate moratorium on the deregulation of food inspection in Canada.
Montreal Gazette
OTTAWA — The union representing scientists working for the federal government is calling for an immediate moratorium on the deregulation of food inspection in Canada.
The Campaign for Public Science, to be launched [...]

Report on the listeriosis outbreak released – 57 recommendations made

Listeriosis report slams leadership

Minister rules out any compensation for victims’ families
By: Sarah Schmidt and Meagan Fitzpatrick, National Post
A “void in leadership” within the federal government during last summer’s deadly listeriosis outbreak came after company officials and over-worked meat inspectors failed to identify a persistent listeria problem at the Maple Leaf Foods plant, according to a highly critical report [...]

Food safety report leaves many questions

Analysis catalogues succession of failures that led to troubling tragedy
By: Robert Cribb, Toronto Star
Twenty-two dead.
Hundreds sickened.
Six months of inquiry.
Nearly $3 million in public money.
The result: 57 recommendations for improving a food safety system that allowed listeria buried inside a meat slicer in a Toronto-area Maple Leaf plant to reach nursing homes and stores, gradually claiming [...]

Food safety investigation falls short

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Inspector shortage compromising food safety
Ottawa – Many of Sheila Weatherill’s recommendations make a constructive and valuable contribution to improving the safety of food in Canada and should be implemented immediately, even though it appears that the CFIA and others in government have either withheld information or misled her, according to the union representing [...]

Meat inspections lasted less than 2 hours a day

Officials spent most of their time on paperwork at Maple Leaf plant leading up to listeria crisis
By: Robert Cribb, Toronto Star
Federal inspectors monitoring the Maple Leaf plant at the centre of Canada’s largest listeria outbreak spent less than two hours a day at the facility – often dropping in for as little as 15 minutes [...]

Tainted meat linked to shortage of inspectors

By: Joanna Smith, Toronto Star
OTTAWA – The head of the federal food inspectors’ union said an outbreak of deadly bacteria traced to ready-to-eat meats might have been prevented if the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had hired twice as many watchdogs.
“I think it’s likely that it might not have happened,” Bob Kingston, president of the agriculture [...]

CFIA admits lack of inspections at Maple Leaf plant

By: Sarah Schmidt, Vancouver Sun
OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did not conduct required in-depth audits of the Maple Leaf plant in the year leading up to the deadly listeriosis outbreak last summer.
Quarterly audits were supposed to be done until December 2007 at the Toronto meat plant, but the agency confirmed Sunday that government [...]

CFIA food inspectors react to whitewash lisertia report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s report on lessons learned from last summer’s listeriosis outbreak is disappointing in that it ignores the root cause of the outbreak, according to the food inspectors union.
“This report is blind to the inspector shortage that is making it impossible for CFIA to properly do its job [...]

How safe is your food?

Twenty dead. A company under siege. The unsettling truth about the Maple Leaf outbreak.
By: MICHAEL FRISCOLANTI, Maclean’s
The Clark family reunion was scheduled for the third weekend of July. Uncles and cousins and in-laws, from as far away as Utah and Florida, had marked the date on their calendars months before. Plane tickets were booked, motel [...]

Food Safety segment on CBC Radio’s ‘The Current”

Vote for better food safety policies, unions say

CBC News
Canadians should vote for the candidate who commits to improving food safety, two unions urged as they launched a national advertising campaign on Friday.
A single strain of listeria has been linked to 16 deaths traced to a Maple Leaf Foods meat processing plant in Toronto, prompting a nationwide recall of meat products.
The timing of [...]