Raw milk: save the family farm while making kids barf?
The N.Y. Times has a story running in tomorrow’s edition flaunting the value of raw milk as a way to save the family farm because a small percentage of people pay a hefty premium for the raw stuff.
.jpeg)
The story lacks any mention of adverse health effects from raw milk , other than quoting an FDA type as saying, “raw milk should not be consumed by anyone, at any time, for any reason.”
Such proclamations are not particularly persuasive.
The story, like many others, notes that people want to know where their food comes from; but that doesn’t make food safer. Knowing how to control and minimize the spread of dangerous microorganisms makes food safer, whether it’s from around the corner or around the globe.
The Times story does however make mention of the Quebec listeria outbreak of 2008 that was traced to cheese made from unpasteurized milk, stating that “one person died; more than 30 became ill,” and proclaiming that the government went crazy recalling nearly 60,000 pounds, of cheese from hundreds of producers.
The Times story appears to be something about government out-of-control, although it’s a mish-mash. And it fails to mention that the 2008 Quebec outbreak, led to 38 hospitalizations, of which 13 were pregnant and gave birth prematurely. Two adults died and there were 13 perinatal deaths. Recent research has demonstrated listeria can cause illness in fetuses and infants at much lower doses than previously thought.
An updated table of unpastuerized milk and cheese outbreaks is below.
Listeria causes illness in fetuses, infants, at much lower dose than previously thought
Chapman is here in Manhattan (Kansas) for a couple days, delivering a seminar later today, hanging out at the Missouri-Kansas State football game tomorrow, and primarily helping plot our research and extension activities for the next few years.
We’ve both sired offspring in the past year-and-a-bit, so the issue of listeria and pregnant women has been a recurring theme – on barfblog.com, in research proposals, and in our microbiological nerd discussions.
Researchers from the University of Georgia reported in the journal, Risk Analysis, this month, that pregnant women may get ill from Listeria at lower doses than previously thought.
The risk of fetal or infant mortality among pregnant women who consume food containing 1 million cells of the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes in soft cheeses and other food is estimated at about 50 percent, suggesting five stillbirths potentially could occur when 10 pregnant women are exposed to that amount.
A previous risk assessment estimated more than 10 trillion cells would result in stillbirths to 50 percent of pregnant women exposed, researchers said.
"We're not saying there's a new epidemic here, we're suggesting we've come up with a more accurate method of measuring the risk and how this deadly bacteria impacts humans, especially the most medically vulnerable among us," study co-author Mary Alice Smith of the University of Georgia said in a statement.
.jpeg)
When estimates are extrapolated from data in tests on laboratory animals, the results showed "Listeriosis is likely occurring from exposure to lower doses than previously estimated," Smith said.
That’s a convoluted way of saying Listeria happens, and it’s probably more deadly than anyone thought for developing babies. Given the ridiculously low levels of awareness amongst physicians, health professionals and expectant mothers, new messages using a variety of media are needed so parents-to-be are at least aware of the risks of certain refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated approximately 2,500 cases of Listeriosis occur annually in the United States, with about 500 cases resulting in death. In 2000, Listeria exposure resulted in a higher rate of hospitalization than any other food-borne pathogen and more than one-third of reported deaths from food pathogens, the CDC says.
Food safety culture means employees don't contaminate food with brooms or forklift tires
If a company making ready-to-eat refrigerated deli-meats has a “strong culture of food safety,” would an employee shake a broom over a line of processed product?
.jpg)
If more inspectors are the answer to safer food, why would the inspectors need publicly reported accounts of foodborne illness and death to try harder?
And if the company and inspectors are doing lots of tests to ensure enhanced food safety, why aren’t they bragging about it instead of requiring an Access to Information request by a media outlet to discover that inspectors continue to find problems with Maple Leaf Foods infamous Bartor Road plant in Weston, Ontario.
Last night, Steve Rennie of The Canadian Press reported that Canadian federal food safety types found a troubling lack of hygiene at Maple Leaf Foods’ Toronto facility just weeks after it reopened last year from a temporary shutdown for cleaning – after 22 people were killed and 53 sickened with listeria linked to deli meat.
A Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspection report dated Oct. 10, 2008, found:
• slime on part of the meat-trimming table in the curing room;
• meat debris on two steel container bins and unidentified debris on the brine tank in the curing room;
•a moist and mouldy cardboard sheet on the base of a skid in the curing room that holds bags of salt;
•mouldy caulking on the walls of the meat-defrosting room;
•a stack of dirty, mouldy and broken skids left in the frozen packoff room during cleaning;
• food debris on knife holders, floor and meat containers in the formulation room; and,
• rust on equipment used to process mock chicken.
The Canadian Press obtained that inspection report and others under the Access to Information Act.
Another report says during visits on Oct. 20 and 21, an inspector watched as "an employee in a grey jacket lifted a floor broom over a finished food product conveyor belt during operation to sweep in between the conveyors." (No additional information as to whether the product was packaged or not).
.jpeg)
Then on Oct. 22, the inspector saw a worker using a forklift to move ready-to-eat link sausages from the cooler to a line for packaging. The report notes the meat at the bottom part of the lift "was not protected for the potential wheel over spray or splash cross contamination."
That part is gross. And unacceptable.
On Aug. 23, 2008, (barfblog.com passim ad nauseum) Maple Leaf CEO Michael McCain took to the Intertubes to apologize for an expanding outbreak of listeriosis that would eventually kill 22 people. As part of his speech, McCain said that Maple Leaf has “a strong culture of food safety.”
On Aug. 27, 2008, McCain told a press conference,
“As I've said before, Maple Leaf Foods is 23,000 people who live in a culture of food safety. We have an unwavering commitment to keep our food safe, and we have excellent systems and processes in place.
Dr. Randy Huffman, Maple Leaf’s chief food-safety officer, took to his company’s Journey (worst band ever)-inspired Journey to Food Safety Leadership blog to say today,
“The average reader must be wondering how this plant could have so many issues only a month after re-opening from causing one of the worst food safety crises in Canada.”
I’m not sure what he means by average. I consider myself dull and below-average; does that mean I won’t be able to understand what he is saying?
Huffman: Over the past 12 -14 months- since these inspections were conducted - we have invested over $5 million in upgrades at the Bartor Road plant. This includes repair of floors and wall surfaces, air handling systems, caulking, better separation of raw and cooked areas of the plant, new pallets and new slicing and packaging equipment. We have implemented over 200 new operating procedures.
Why did it take 22 deaths and 53 illnesses to make this food safety investment?
Huffman: CFIA generates these reports and so does Maple Leaf, through our own inspections across all our plants. We welcome this government scrutiny. Canadians hold us to a higher standard, as they should.
So why did the reports have to be obtained through an Access to Information request, and why doesn’t Maple Leaf just sidestep the government and make the reports public, along with other data, as it becomes available, to build trust with the buying consumer?
Would more inspectors have helped? Maybe if they were looking. Federal food inspection union thingy Bob Kingston said,
"In a normal operation that had not been through what they had been through, that might be a common occurrence. But in this facility, it's very surprising that that would still be there. Because you would expect it to be spotless."
The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants will go above and beyond minimal government and auditor standards and sell food safety solutions directly to the public. The best organizations will use their own people to demand ingredients from the best suppliers; use a mixture of encouragement and enforcement to foster a food safety culture; and use technology to be transparent -- whether it's live webcams in the facility or real-time test results on the website -- to help restore the shattered trust with the buying public.
And the best cold-cut companies may stop dancing around and tell pregnant women, old people and other immunocompromised folks, don't eat this food unless it's heated
Canadians can go back to sleep; Maple Leaf Foods is profitable again
Some American colleagues have said killing 22 customers with deli-meat would have led to a non-existent company. Not so in Canada, where $5.5 billion companies like Maple Leaf Foods can say with a straight face that listeria presented new challenges in the ready-to-eat food category.
(1).jpg)
Maple Leaf has been praised for its communication activities in the aftermath of the listeria outbreak last fall, but instead of taking a real leadership role they have fallen back on the tired and true – their stock went up, so everyone is happy.
Specifically, Maple Leaf has failed to provide point-of-sale warnings to at-risk populations like pregnant women and old folks, failed to publicly release listeria test data and failed to promote their food safety efforts at retail, to enhance the food safety culture back at the producer and processor level, and to build consumer confidence. A completely blown opportunity.
Well done: be aggressively mediocre. That’s how to get brownie points in Canada.
Faith-based food safety? Market microbial food safety directly at retail so consumers can choose
Most food purchases are based on faith. That’s why an extensive series of rules, regulations and punishments emerged beginning in 12th century Mediterranean areas.
.jpg)
Faith-based food safety systems are prevalent from the farmer’s market to the supermarket, especially in the produce section. And almost anything can, and is, claimed on food labels – except microbial food safety.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced they are going to examine the growing number of nutrition claims found on the front of food packages after complaints the labels promote health fairytales.
In the U.K., the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has encouraged diners to boycott restaurants that cannot answer questions about the origin of their food.
British chefs Raymond Blanc, Peter Gordon, Martin Lam, Paul Merrett and Antony Worrall-Thompson issued a joint statement saying:
“The British public need to stop being so reticent in restaurants and start asking where their food comes from. It’s your right to know the origin of the food you are served and what types of farms are being used - and the mark of a good restaurant is one that is proud to tell you.”
In response to this news Freedom Food has launched a new long-term campaign called ‘Simply Ask’ which aims to get people asking about food provenance when eating out. This is in a bid to encourage restaurants, pubs and cafes to start sourcing products from higher welfare farms such as Freedom Food, free-range or organic.
Americans are questioning nutrition claims, Brits are questioning allegedly animal-friendly sources of food, maybe there’s room to ask for microbiologically safe food – the stuff that sickens up to 30 per cent of all people everywhere every year (so says the World health Organization).
Lots of companies and retailers are taking baby steps in the direction of empowering consumers to hold producers accountable, but lots aren’t.
.jpg)
Maple Leaf Foods, whose listeria-laden cold-cuts killed 22 Canadians last year, is continuing on its bad Journey to Food Safety Leadership by announcing today that, “Industry and government come together to make food safer for Canadians.”
Invoking the two groups shoppers distrust the most – industry and government – and proclaiming they are working together to better things may not be the best communication strategy to build trust and confidence.
Dr. Randall Huffman, Chief Food Safety Officer for Maple Leaf Foods, stated,
"The Canadian food industry is united that food safety not be used as a competitive advantage. Every member at every step in the production process is a steward of food safety. This spirit of cooperation heralds a new beginning for our industry, and together we will make Canada the gold standard for food safety. This symposium is the first in a series to ensure we share experiences and knowledge, and gain insights into emerging risks, technology advances and cutting edge science that can deliver safer food for Canadians."
That’s nice. Computer companies share technology all the time but that doesn’t stop them from marketing their individual technological advantages.
Stop pandering. Companies that are serious about food safety will go beyond the trust-me approach of faith-based food safety systems and provide public access to food safety test results, provide warnings to populations at risk, and market food safety at retail, to enhance the food safety culture back at the producer or processor level, and to build consumer confidence. May even make money.
.jpeg)
Higher processing temperature may reduce listeria risk in smoked salmon
I’m a big fan of smoked salmon, especially the farmed kind – it’s more sustainable. The convenience and nutrients are hard to top – except maybe with a slice of tomato.
The problem with such refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods is listeria, the bacterium that’s everywhere and grows at refrigerator temperatures.
Last night, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Classic Smokehouse (2003) Inc. warned the public not to consume Classic Canadian Wild Sockeye Trims because the product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The affected product, Classic Canadian Wild Sockeye Lox Trim, was sold in 454g vacuum packages bearing UPC 3000550008256 and PACKED ON dates from MA 02 (May 2, 2009) to JL 28 (July 28, 2009) inclusive.
This product has been distributed in British Columbia.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.
At least not this time.
Such listeria-related recalls are common, and why work continues to increase the safety of refrigerated RTE foods. A recent study from the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists, determined that smoking salmon at adequately high temperatures is a step in reducing the risk of Listeria monocytogenes in the fish.
Researchers from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Wyndmoor, PA, found greater inactivation rates of Listeria monocytogenes occurred in samples processed at higher temperatures and in samples containing higher concentrations of salt and smoke compound. The inactivation rate increased tenfold when the temperature increased by 5° C, indicating that smoking temperature is a main factor affecting the inactivation of the pathogen. In addition, salt and smoke compounds also contribute to the inactivation effect.
While such research continues, pregnant women should avoid refrigerated RTE foods like smoked salmon. Amy’s back on the smoked salmon, and this is her lunch for later today: smoked salmon and walnuts over spring mix, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (left).
Deli clerk refuses to sell UK mom-to-be cheddar cheese, says pregnant women shouldn't eat cheddar; wrong
From the a-little-knowledge-is-dangerous category, a UK deli clerk at a Sainsbury’s supermarket refused to sell a pregnant woman a piece of cheddar cheese until she lied and promised she wouldn’t eat the cheese.
.jpeg)
Janet Lehain wrote in a letter of complaint to Sainsbury's that the female clerk at the Clapham, Beds store was "patronising" and said, “how lucky my generation are to have such information available as this was not the case 'in her day'."
Sainsbury's said the worker was wrong, adding,
"It isn't policy to refuse a sale on grounds goods may be unsuitable for pregnant women."
Whatever the policy is, Sainsbury’s could at least get the information correct: there are certain soft cheeses that should be avoided by pregnant women because of the potential to support growth of listeria. Amy has written extensively about this.
Me, I view the grocery store and the restaurant as my laboratory. I watch and ask questions of people, especially front-line staff. The head of food safety back at corporate HQ may know the correct food safety answer, but are they providing support to front-line staff, the people customers are most likely to interact with? That’s why we do food safety infosheets, a tool to provide continuous updates to employees, and that’s why we do secret shopper experiments.
The key findings after sending trained shoppers to a bunch of stores in southern Ontario in 2004?
“Although many grocery store employees appeared confident in their food safety knowledge, when asked for storage and handling advice, many were unaware of the proper methods within their department and were willing to offer incorrect advice. This advice often conflicted with the food handling information posted throughout the grocery store.”
Any organization is only as good as its weakest link. There’s already enough bad food safety information out there.
Secret shopper: Grocery store employee food handling practices from a customer’s perspective
01.aug.05,
Food Protection Trends
Lisa Mathiasen and Doug Powell
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=11&sc=82&id=840
Food safety is critical along the entire agri-food chain, but it should be emphasized particularly in grocery stores because this may be the last opportunity to prevent food from becoming contaminated before it is purchased.
The responsibility for safe food handling has increased for the newer North American supermarkets, which offer a variety of additional food services and products. This research reports on food handling trends discovered by observing the food handling practices of grocery store employees and by inquiring about specific food safety-related topics in supermarkets across southern Ontario.
Ten researchers, trained to portray customers, visited 13 randomly selected supermarkets in Southern Ontario, three times. Observations and information were evaluated against the content of supermarket training programs and current literature. The triangulation of results was used to establish and confirm the observed trends.
During the store visits, a number of poor food handling practices were observed including improper glove use; cross contamination between raw and ready-to-eat meats and poultry; improper food storage; and poor personal hygiene. In addition, although many grocery store employees appeared confident in their food safety knowledge, when asked for storage and handling advice, many were unaware of the proper methods within their department and were willing to offer incorrect advice. This advice often conflicted with the food handling information posted throughout the grocery store.
This research highlights the need for more interactive training specific to individual departments within a supermarket, and will help in the improvement of training resources for grocery store food handlers.
Maple Leaf CEO tells Canadian consumers to do more after cold-cuts kill 22
After the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak of 1993, the one that placed microbial food safety on American TV dinner plates, the company hired Dave Theno and developed an industry leading food safety program.
A year after Maple Leaf cold-cuts killed 22 and sickened 53 in Canada, the company announced it has launched a new web site and that consumers need to do more.
.jpg)
I’m not making this up.
On Friday, Maple Leaf CEO Michael McCain (right, exactly as shown), on his Journey-tribute band path to food safety leadership, said,
“There’s lots we can and are doing to become a global food safety leader and it’s our job to make food as safe as possible, but there’s also lots that consumers can do to further protect themselves and their families and practice good food safety.
“This week we launched a new Maple Leaf website which is a huge leap forward in reaching consumers. Its taken us over two years in the making and it’s a great site with neat gadgets like meal planning tools, recipes, cooking and shopping tips, and most importantly food safety insights through clicking on ‘food safety at home’ at the top right of the home page.
“I think this website is one of the coolest food sites out there, it’s interactive, informative and highlights where Maple Leaf is going as a company. We hope you will visit and welcome your feedback!!”
People that write with not one, but two, exclamation marks, are doubly desperate to get attention. It’s like double dick fingers. Dude, since you think it’s such a cool food site, and since you devoted two years of resources to this complete waste of Internet surfing, if I was a shareholder wondering where this company was going, I’d be yelling SELL, SELL, SELL!!!
(note the all CAPS and triple exclamation marks)
Companies like Jack in the Box recovered because they did the right thing – and didn’t blame consumers. Provide meaningful information to consumers, especially those at risk, like pregnant women and older folks. Make your test results public. And try not to write total bullshit like, our new website “is a huge leap forward in reaching consumers,” when you have no evidence to prove such assertions other than wine-soaked dreams at the cottage.
Does it suck or not? USDA's version of protect your baby and yourself from listeriosis
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, eager to groove with the youtube generation but without the grossness that thrives online, released a video today highlighting the potential for certain foods to cause listeriosis in pregnant women.
I don’t know if it works so I asked Chapman. He said the video doesn’t spend enough time on deli meats, the food that risk assessments have shown was much riskier than others. He also said it’s not bad, but somewhat patronizing, but he’s also not a pregnant woman.
For which we are all grateful.
I asked a former pregnant woman, Amy, to look at the video. She said,
“The voices are crazy. I love the idea that she had her baby while they were filming.
“Why do they pick such a boring male narrator? Like I want to listen to him tell me about what not to eat.
“He sounds like he should be the voice of the Pork Bureau.”
These are anecdotal responses. I look forward to USDA releasing the results of their video evaluation research so taxpayers can be assured these attempts at video aren’t just wasting time and money.
Marketing food safety: Maple Lodge Farms deli-meat edition
Maple Lodge Farms is often confused with Maple Leaf Foods, the latter of the listeria mess in Canada a year ago that killed 22 people.
In an effort to protect their brand, Maple Lodge has taken to marketing food safety. And I’m all for it.
These full-page advertisements are from a couple of Canadian magazines, the Sept. 2009 issue of Today’s Parent (right), and the Oct. 2009 issue of Canadian Living (below, left).
There’s far too many sick people, and far too much bureau-dancing around foodborne illness: The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants should go above and beyond minimal government and auditor standards and sell food safety solutions directly to the public. The best organizations will use their own people to demand ingredients from the best suppliers; use a mixture of encouragement and enforcement to foster a food safety culture; and use technology to be transparent -- whether it's live webcams in the facility or real-time test results on the website -- to help restore the shattered trust with the buying public.
Those companies that promote food safety culture can market their activities, and then consumers have a way to choose at the check-out aisle, providing feedback to those companies that make food safety a public priority.
Maple Lodge isn’t so much promoting a food safety culture as a technological fix. But at least they’re out there. A case could be made that the tomatoes, lettuce and sprouts pictured in these sandwiches also pose a significant food safety risk. That’s why buyers have to source food from safe sources.
Confused Moms to Be
When I was pregnant with Sorenne in the summer of 2008, we spent a month in Canada while the Maple Leaf Listeria outbreak was, in retrospect, percolating in cold-cuts that were being consumed across the country.
If I hadn’t been informed by my food safety guru husband, I could have very easily consumed ready-to-eat deli meat on our car trip north, potentially putting my baby at risk. Sorenne turned out healthy, huge and wonderful. And we are thankful every day.
Several of my former students, friends, and family members are pregnant right now, and somehow I’ve become the expert on food safety during pregnancy. These women have expressed frustration and confusion about the conflicting information they read and receive from their doctors regarding what they can and cannot eat during pregnancy. While I generally think moderation and eliminating stress are priorities, there are a few food safety concerns that are definitely worth considering. I’ve already written on “What you can and cannot eat during pregnancy,” but in light of major outbreaks (and this is barfblog, of the 4 Rs), the information bears repeating.
Pregnant women should avoid:
- ready to eat refrigerated foods such as deli meats, smoked fish, hot dogs, sausages, pâté, and the like. If the food is shelf-stable (canned), it should be ok. Unfortunately, it was impossible to find canned pâté in Manhattan, KS during my pregnancy – but now it’s available at Hyvee.
- soft-serve ice-cream which has been suspected as a listeria risk
- soft cheeses (brie, camembert – pasteurized or not) and we are uncertain about blue-veined cheeses (I toasted or melted my cheese to alleviate my fears. Now this seems laughable since I’m not eating any dairy while I breastfeed.)
- and sprouts because they have been identified as a source of listeria and other pathogens.
Listeria is one of the main food safety concerns during pregnancy because it causes a high rate of miscarriage and stillbirths.
For further reading, consult the Bad bug book, http://www.foodsafety.gov/~mow/chap6.html and the CDC’s excellent site http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/pregnancy_gateway/infection_list.htm#protect
5 sick, 1 dead in new listeria outbreak in Canada
Canadian health types can’t seem to decide whether to go public with bad health news or whether to do it just enough to cover their asses afterwards.
A press release showed up on the Public Health Agency of Canada web site dated 21.sep.09 but it didn’t show up in any of the other notification systems like e-mail or RSS feeds. No media has picked it up. Phyllis Entis of e-food alert noticed it, so good.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is working with provincial and local health authorities, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to investigate cases of Listeria monocytogenes in Canada.
Currently, there are six cases under investigation. The six cases were caused by the same strain of Listeria monocytogenes. This strain is relatively common and it is unknown whether or not these cases are connected to the same source.
Investigation is ongoing to determine the possible cause of illness in each individual case, and to determine if there is a common source for the infections.
One of the cases has died, and listeriosis contributed to this death. … However, most healthy people exposed to Listeria are at very low risk of being affected by the bacteria.
Why do bureaucrats insist on saying listeria is low risk? I’m sure it doesn’t feel low-risk to the sick people and dead person. Just report what is being done.
$75 million Canadian tax dollars to keep cold-cuts safe
Canadian Minister of Agriculture and wannabe listeria comedian Gerry-isn’t-my-moustache-awesome Ritz announced today the government will spend $75 million Canadian taxpayer dollars to make sure Maple Leaf Foods products don’t make people barf or kill them.
.jpg)
"The Government of Canada's highest priority is the safety of Canadians. We are making significant investments to hire more inspectors; update technologies and protocols; and, improve communication so that Canadians have the information they need to protect their families."
The government will:
• hire 166 new food safety staff with 70 focusing on ready-to-eat-meat facilities;
more inspectors with listeria-vision goggles won’t make a difference
• provide 24/7 availability of health risk assessment teams to improve support to food safety investigations;
the half-dozen people in my lab used to do that
• improve coordination among federal and provincial departments and agencies;
more meetings
• improve communications to vulnerable populations before and during a foodborne illness outbreak;
could do that now, have produced nothing
• improve tracking of potential foodborne illness outbreaks through a national surveillance system;
yawn, been saying that for years
• improve detection methods for Listeria monocytogenes and other hazards in food to reduce testing time and enable more rapid response during food safety investigations, as well as expanding the Government's ability to do additional Listeria testing; and
a few researchers get money for their testing protocols
• initiate a third-party audit to make sure Canada's food inspection system has the right resources dedicated to the right priorities.
Maybe they could hire the American Institute of Baking, from Manhattan (Kansas) the same third-party auditor geniuses who said Peanut Corporation of America was doing a bang-up job, that is until over 4,000 products were recalled.
Dubai supermarkets start direct food safety messaging at deli counters
Dubai is hot, with daytime highs at this time of year regularly exceeding 40C (104 F). Local public health types determined that with the super shopping mega malls, people were buying food, placing it in the incubators they called cars, and then some more leisurely shopping.
So, after a few meetings, all supermarkets in Dubai will now be offering warnings, similar to these, regarding ready-to-eat foods. The sign says, 'Cold Food Consume Immediately Or Refrigerate Within One Hour.'
Cool stuff.
Maple Leaf listeria vp apologizes for bad comedy routine
The Toronto Star reports this morning that a Maple Leaf Foods executive has apologized after joking about last year’s listeria outbreak in Canada that killed 22 people.
(2)(1)(1).jpg)
There are any number of elements that make this story particularly gross and uniquely Canadian.
It all began one-year ago yesterday – or at least that’s what Maple Leaf CEO and spokesthingy Michael McCain would have Canadians believe. McCain and Maple Leaf ran full-page advertisements in newspapers across Canada yesterday, saying oops, sorry about that listeria thing that killed 22 people last fall.
McCain wrote on the company blog,
“It was a year ago on August 23, 2008 that some of our products were linked to the death of 22 Canadians and made many others very ill.”
That’s fantasy. Maple Leaf products were epidemiologically linked to illness and death in Canadians in July. Both the company and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have steadfastly refused to give a full accounting of who knew what when. But that’s not me talking – that’s from the chief medical officer of Ontario.
And then, I guess while Maple Leaf types were being credited for another PR sensitivity win, a video of a Maple Leaf vp surfaces showing him joking about the listeria illnesses and deaths.
I blogged it yesterday, and within an hour, former B.C. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and current Maple Leaf vp Rory McAlpine (left, exactly as shown) wrote on barfblog.com:
“I want to sincerely apologize on your blog for the joke with which I began my comments at the Conference earlier in August. These were my personal remarks, and I appreciate in hindsight they were not appropriate given the Listeriosis outbreak and the death and illness it caused. I didn’t in any way mean to make light of this tragedy and I feel terrible that my early remarks conveyed a callousness that I don't feel. You have every right to call me on it and I am deeply sorry.
“I hope my full remarks that day, the questions from the audience and my participation in the panel discussion reflect better on how acutely accountable I and everyone at Maple Leaf feels for what happened and all the actions we are taking to achieve our commitment to food safety leadership.”
That’s some well-sized kahunas. I’ve also said dumb things and had to apologize. But McCain said yesterday, “holding ourselves to a higher standard means we will act more quickly and more assertively when there is a potential food safety concern - even a small one.”
So, once again, before anyone at Maple Leaf gives lectures on how to handle a crisis – which Rory has done, it’s all online – make your listeria data public and put warning labels on your product so pregnant woman, the elderly and others don’t barf from your food.
As I told the Toronto Star,
"It's nice that he apologized, but it would be better if he'd put warnings labels on products for old people and pregnant women and make (listeria test result) data public."
It’s also sorta gross that no one from the best and brightest conference at Couchiching where Rory laid down his comedian wares said anything about this until yesterday. They all seemed to have a ball (right). How Canadian.
Rory may not remember me but when he was deputy minister of agriculture, I was invited in Dec. 2003 to give a talk at a meeting of all the deputy ministers of agriculture, and I talked about how food safety reality should match rhetoric. Maybe Rory stepped out.
And I note Rory is on the International Advisory Council for the Ontario Agricultural College – or at least he was. When I was at the University of Guelph, the Dean du jour of OAC would annually speak to us lowly faculty about the need to be visionary and how we could use the advice of visionary dudes to be better professors.
So the Dean would spend college money on some sort of international advisory committee which was usually staffed with colleagues and cronies near and dear to the dean.
It’s true: the best and brightest do rise to the top. Kudos to Rory.
Maple Leaf listeria vp sucks as comedian
The best Canadian comedians move to the U.S. The worst apparently stay and become Minister of Agriculture or a vp at some $5.5 billion a year corporation that discovers food safety after killing 22 people.
(2)(1).jpg)
First it was Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry-isn’t-my-moustache-awesome Ritz joking that he was dying by a thousand cold cuts.
Now, a Maple Leaf Foods vp is shown on YouTube, yucking it up for Canadian policy wonks in Ontario cottage country on August 8, 2009.
Every year, the witty and urbane of Canada put on their best Berkenstocks and retreat to the Couchiching conference. A barfblog.com fan e-mailed me at the time, and said via a redirected twitter post, Rory McAlpine of Maple Leaf Foods “suggests an approach to food safety that takes in the accountability of the consumer.”
At the time I thought, what an asshole. Are consumers supposed to be deep-frying their deli meats? But I had no further information, no verification, so didn’t bother blogging the story.
The video has surfaced.
I first heard this joke about the Toronto Maple Leafs, listeria and the Leafs inability to win hockey’s coveted Stanley Cup, a futility streak going back to 1967, last year.
I thought it was tasteless and said so at the time.
Guess Rory stayed in Canada, where he still may be considered funny.
So here’s Rory McAlpine, vice-president, Government and Industry Relations, Maple Leaf Foods, and former British Columbia deputy minister of Agriculture, with his rendition of, hey, my own kid got listeria from my products, what’s the big deal?
Listeria-laden chicken on Virgin Blue flights leads to two premature births
The corporate geniuses at Virgin Blue airlines must be delighted that the listeria-laden chicken served on Virgin Blue flights that sickened seven and caused two premature births has been linked to Wollongong-based company GMI Food Wholesalers.
.jpg)
But Virgin Blue served the food – they are responsible.
"It appears the likely source of the contamination was an ingredient supplied to the manufacturers of the wraps and not Virgin Blue or other companies who received the affected products. Virgin Blue has removed the product from service at the end of June."
Brisbane-based solicitor Mark O'Connor stated what any company should know: Virgin Blue served the food, Virgin Blue is responsible.
"The airline in turn would have to make a claim against the supplier of the food but for passengers, it’s the airline that is liable.”
Virgin Blue should check on its suppliers rather than trying to cover their ass with (bad) PR.
Did Maple Leaf's listeria hot dogs sicken a dog?
It’s one thing to sicken and kill humans with food like Maple Leaf cold cuts – just don’t mess with people’s pets.
Carrie Pich of Windsor, Ontario, (right, photo from Windsor Star) is convinced her beloved Tigger -- a two-year-old yellow Labrador retriever -- fell ill over the weekend because he ate Maple Leaf hotdogs that might be tainted with bacteria.
"This could have been a human. I mean, (Tigger) is human to us. But it could've happened to you. My husband could've ate two. He loves hotdogs."
Pich said she bought three packages of hotdogs last week: two packs of Maple Leaf Original Wieners and one pack of Shopsy's Deli-Fresh.
.jpg)
Both products are among those listed in the recall.
But Pich didn't know that on the evening of July 31, when she cut up three Maple Leaf Original Wieners to put in Tigger's supper, and gave him one more as a late-night treat.
On Saturday morning, Pich woke to find Tigger vomiting blood.
Dr. Ameer Ebrahim, the owner and veterinarian at Cabana @ Howard Pet Hospital said he can't confirm that Tigger suffered from listeriosis, but the dog's symptoms were "very consistent" with bacterial infection, and he wouldn't rule out a connection with the recalled wieners eaten by Tigger.
"That's a very strong coincidence.”
Tainted plane food linked to listeriosis increase in Australia
Our friends are pregnant and recently returned from Australia; I hope they didn’t fly Virgin Blue.
The Australian reports tomorrow morning that two pregnant women gave birth prematurely after eating contaminated chicken wraps that were sold in their thousands on Virgin Blue flights from Brisbane and the Gold Coast, triggering a national public health alert.
The airline confirmed yesterday that up to 5000 flights in May and June could have carried the snacks laced with potentially deadly listeria bacteria.
Five Queenslanders are known to have contracted listeriosis food poisoning after consuming the wraps, including the two women who gave birth prematurely, a known complication of the illness.
Both women and their babies survived.
The Brisbane Times reported yesterday that Queensland Health has confirmed nine cases of listeriosis so far this year, compared to 56 cases nationally. Last year, 12 cases were recorded for the whole of 2008 in Queensland, compared to 68 nationally.
.jpg)
Virgin Blue today in a statement an outside contractor may have been to blame, adding,
"It appears the likely source of the contamination was an ingredient supplied to the manufacturers of the wraps and not Virgin Blue or other companies who received the affected products. Virgin Blue has removed the product from service at the end of June."
Brisbane-based solicitor Mark O'Connor stated what any company should know: Virgin Blue served the food, Virgin Blue is responsible.
"The airline in turn would have to make a claim against the supplier of the food but for passengers, it’s the airline that is liable.”
Virgin Blue should check on its suppliers rather than trying to cover their ass with (bad) PR.
OK, we get it, listeria is everywhere; what are you going to do about it, Maple Leaf?
Early on in the Aug. 2008 outbreak of listeria that killed 22 Canadians, the manufacturer, Maple Leaf Foods, adopted the line that, listeria is everywhere.
(2).jpg)
CEO Micheal McCain said,
“All food plants and supermarkets have some amount of listeria.”
Yesterday, when Maple Leaf announced yet another recall of product – this time involving nine wiener products produced under the Hygrade, Shopsy's and Maple Leaf brands produced at its plant in Hamilton, Ontario – the listeria is everywhere line was … everywhere.
Randy Huffman of Maple Leaf said in the company blog yesterday,
“Listeria is a common bacteria – it can be in virtually 100% of refrigerated food plants. It also exists at low levels in one out of every 200 ready-to-eat food products and even higher levels in many other foods we eat …
“This creates a real dilemma for us. I have to be frank with you. Nothing we can do – nothing anyone can do – will completely eliminate Listeria from the food supply. Listeria is found in about 0.5% of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products based upon best estimates from the USDA. This percentage means that one out of every 200 packages is likely to be positive. I know consumers might prefer that this number was zero, and food safety professionals certainly strive for this goal.”
I thought you were Randy, but if you’d rather be frank, sure. And this is a Canadian recall, you may want to explain what USDA is.
Both Huffman and Mansel Griffiths, professor in the food science department at the University of Guelph, invoked the consumer-wants-zero-risk although I’ve seen no evidence to back up this straw-person argument. Griffiths said,
“There's no such thing as 100-per-cent safe foods, no matter what food we eat.”
No one asked for risk-free food; but consumers do expect that those in charge of whatever portion of the farm-to-fork food safety system take responsibility for their own actions. Me, I told the Toronto Star the risk is that the listeria contamination could have happened after processing, and people, especially kids, eat wieners out of the fridge without reheating.
Back to the issue: if listeria is everywhere, what should processors and retailers do about it?
.jpg)
• Warning labels. Pregnant women and other at-risk populations should be informed of listeria risks, using a variety of messages and a variety of media. The supermarket Publix places all of its deli-cut meats into a plastic bag that says:
“The Publix Deli is committed to the highest quality fresh cold cuts & cheeses
Therefore we recommend all cold cuts are best if used within three days of purchase
And all cheese items are best if used within four days of purchase”
• Make listeria testing data public.
• Market food safety efforts at retail.
Because listeria is everywhere.
Food safety Bill passes House - will it mean fewer sick people?
While the websphere, blogsphere and twittersphere were ejaculating electrons about the potential passage of new food safety legislation by the U.S. House– it passed -- I was hanging out with some food safety dudes at Publix supermarkets HQ in Lakeland, Florida.
And I saw far more in Lakeland that would impact daily food safety than anything the politicians, bureaucrats, hangers-on and chatting classes could ever come up with.
When it comes to the safety of the food supply, I generally ignore the chatter from Washington, as well as the wasted Internet commentaries and conspiracy theories. If a proposal does emerge, such as the creation of a single food inspection agency, or the bill that passed the House today – and just the House -- I ask, Will it actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?
As the General Accounting Office pointed out in a report a year ago,
“The burden for food safety in most of the selected countries lies primarily with food producers, rather than with inspectors, although inspectors play an active role in overseeing compliance. This principle applies to both domestic and imported products.”
Publix, with over 1,000 supermarkets, its own processing plants, and thousands of food products moving through its shelves, can’t afford the luxury of chatter.
After my visit, I went to the local Publix in St. Pete Beach to check out what the food safety type said – sure, the boss knows food safety, but do the front-line staff?
I ordered some shaved smoked turkey breast from the deli, and the sealable bag the meat was delivered in contained the following:
“Publix Deli
The Publix Deli is committed to the highest quality fresh cold cuts & cheeses
Therefore we recommend all cold cuts are best if used within three days of purchase
And all cheese items are best if used within four days of purchase”
(The picture isn’t very good. Note to Publix: The label warning about shelf-life is a great idea, but can’t read it if the price sticker gets slapped over some of the text.)
This is the first time I’ve seen a retailer provide information to consumers on the accurate shelf-life of sliced deli meats. It didn’t require Congressional hearings; it didn’t require some hopelessly-flawed consumer education campaign; it required a food safety type to say, this is important, let’s do it.
I also went looking for some bread for turkey sandwiches tomorrow as we move down to Sarasota, and then Venice Beach. I asked an employee in the bakery for some whole wheat rolls, and she pointed out what was available, said packages of six were pre-packaged, but she could get me whatever number I wanted. I asked for four. There was no bin for me to stick my who-knows-where-they-have-been hands in to and retrieve a few rolls. The bins were turned so that only staff had access. The employee said it had been that way since she started three years ago, and that “there’s just too much stuff going around” to let consumers stick their hands into bun bins (most commonly found item in communal bun bins? False fingernails).
It’s nice that food safety is once again a Presidential priority and that politicians are trying to set a tone. But chatting doesn’t mean fewer sick people – actions do.
Food safety culture more fashion than fact for posers
On Aug. 23, 2008, Maple Leaf CEO Michael McCain took to the Intertubes to apologize for an expanding outbreak of listeriosis that would eventually kill 22 people. As part of his speech, McCain said that Maple Leaf has “a strong culture of food safety.”
.jpg)
On Aug. 27, 2008, McCain told a press conference,
“As I've said before, Maple Leaf Foods is 23,000 people who live in a culture of food safety. We have an unwavering commitment to keep our food safe, and we have excellent systems and processes in place.”
As laid bare in the Weatherill report on the 2008 listeria shit-fest, McCain’s invocation of food safety culture was as credible as the politicians and bureaucrats who lauded the workings of Canada’s food safety surveillance system, when it didn’t actually work at all.
Andre Picard, the long-time health reporter for Toronto’s Globe and Mail, picked up on this theme today when he wrote,
“the root of the listeriosis outbreak in Canada in 2008 was not two dirty meat slicers but rather a culture – in government and private enterprise alike – in which food safety was not a priority but an afterthought.”
Picard says Ms. Weatherill's most important recommendation – one that has been largely glossed over in media coverage of the report – is for a culture of safety or, as is stated bluntly in the report: “Actions, not words.”
Really, Canada, this is nothing new. There is a long history in developed countries of negligence, followed by remorse, promises to do better and … minimal changes. Didn’t Canada go through all this after E. coli O157:H7 entered the municipal water supply in Walkerton, Ontario in 2000, killing 7 and sickening 2,500 in a town of 5,000?
In 1985, 19 of 55 affected people at a London, Ontario, nursing home died after eating sandwiches infected with E. coli O157:H7. On Oct. 12, 1985, in response to an inquest, the Ontario government announced a training program for food-handlers in health-care institutions, “stressing cleaning and sanitizing procedures and hygienic practices in food preparation.” That training apparently didn’t include the food safety basic – don’t give unheated cold cuts to vulnerable populations, like old people, ‘cause they may die from listeria.
These days, food safety culture is the buzz. The same recommendation – to embrace and enhance food safety culture -- was embraced by the U.K. Food Standards Agency last week following an inquiry into the death of 5-year-old Mason Jones and the illness of 160 other schoolchildren who consumed E. coli O157:H7 contaminated cold cuts in Wales in 2005.
Sixteen years after E. coli O157:H7 killed four and sickened hundreds who ate hamburgers at the Jack-in-the-Box chain, the challenge remains: how to get people to take food safety seriously?
Lots of companies do take food safety seriously and the bulk of Western meals are microbiologically safe. But recent food safety failures have been so extravagant, so insidious and so continual that consumers must feel betrayed.
Culture encompasses the shared values, mores, customary practices, inherited traditions, and prevailing habits of communities. The culture of today’s food system (including its farms, food processing facilities, domestic and international distribution channels, retail outlets, restaurants, and domestic kitchens) is saturated with information but short on behavioral-change insights. Creating a culture of food safety requires application of the best science with the best management and communication systems, including compelling, rapid, relevant, reliable and repeated, multi-linguistic and culturally-sensitive messages.
Frank Yiannas, the vice-president of food safety at Wal-Mart writes in his 2008 book, Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-based Food Safety Management System, that an organization’s food safety systems need to be an integral part of its culture.
The other guru of food safety culture, Chris Griffith of the University of Wales, features prominently in the report by Professor Hugh Pennington into the 2005 E.coli outbreak in Wales.
I’ve maintained for 16 years that, despite high-profile outbreaks and unacceptable loss of life, food safety in Canada is, as Weatherill stated, an afterthought.
Forget government. Michael McCain, you want to be a leader, lead, don’t just talk about it by throwing around words like food safety culture because they are suddenly fashionable.
The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants will go above and beyond minimal government and auditor standards and sell food safety solutions directly to the public. The best organizations will use their own people to demand ingredients from the best suppliers; use a mixture of encouragement and enforcement to foster a food safety culture; and use technology to be transparent -- whether it's live webcams in the facility or real-time test results on the website -- to help restore the shattered trust with the buying public.
And the best cold-cut companies may stop dancing around and tell pregnant women, old people and other immunocompromised folks, don't eat this food unless it's heated.
Weatherill says, action not words.
'Food safety in Canada is on the upper end of mediocre'
As a Canadian in America, watching the health-care advertisements, warning that any new U.S. system will be socialized like in Canada is as informative as watching a Michael Moore documentary.
Both are widely inaccurate.
.jpg)
Same with the orgy of listeria-in-Canada coverage following the release of the Weatherill report yesterday. Almost all of the commentary and analysis borders on the banal (the dictionary says banal means “so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring,” so for once I used a word properly) but a few things stand out:
Weatherill zeroed in on a "vacuum in senior leadership" among government officials at the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that caused "confusion and weak decision-making."
Like a risk communication vacuum; covered that in the 1997 book, Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk.
Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star got things right when he summarized things this way:
Twenty-two dead.
Hundreds sickened.
Six months of inquiry.
Nearly $3 million in public money.
That’s $3 million in addition to all the publicly-funded salaries of bureaucrats sitting around figuring out what not to do and how to cover their own assess. The Prime Minister could have called the bureaucrats on the carpet and said – stop messing around, come clean on who knew what when and fix this. Instead, stand-up comedian wannabe and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz got to make jokes about the 22 dead people. And he still has his job.
The front-line public health types at the local and provincial levels seemed to know what they were doing. The feds at three different agencies – Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada, and the Public Health Agency of Canada – continually got in the way and messed things up.
Of course that didn’t stop the politicians and bureaucrats from praising the Canadian food safety system in the early days of the outbreak – when they had no clue what they were talking about. Like health care, it seems that the Canadian model is to tell citizens repeatedly they have the best system in the world, and they believe it.
Or, as Cribb said this morning in the Star,
At virtually every stage of the outbreak, it seems things could have – should have – gone differently in a food safety system repeatedly hailed by government officials as "one of the safest in the world."
Rick Holley, a microbiologist at the University of Manitoba and member of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's external advisory panel, responded with,
"I get so annoyed when I hear them say that. The food safety system in Canada is on the upper end of being mediocre."
Like health care.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Back in Black - Health Care Reform | ||||
|
||||
Canadian ag minister speaks about listeria outbreak report, CFIA
The unintentionally funny and still, inexplicably, Minister of Agriculture in Canada, Gerry-death-by-a-1,000-cold-cuts-and-isn’t-my-moustache-awesome Ritz, spoke at a press conference today. Macleans.ca has already published some of the Q&A, which I have edited here for brevity:
Q: Do you now recognize that, that CFIA, both those inspectors were over, do you accept that they were stressed and they were stretched too thin and that, and maybe explain why the audits were conducted?
A: Well as you know, I’m not involved in the day to day operations, so I can’t speak to the stress of the front line operators.
Q: We talk a lot about what went wrong, where the failures were, but 22 people died here. Where’s the accountability? Has anyone been fired and are you willing to compensate the families that were so aversely affected by this clear failure of our system?
A: Well there was a lawsuit, as you know, and there were compensations paid out through McCain’s. Other than that, as I said, it’s a very complex issue.
Q: But Maple Leaf Foods took responsibility. Why can’t the government take some sort of responsibility? Clearly, there were breakdowns within the government and that’s acknowledged in this report.
A: Well our, our responsibility is to move forward with a better, better food safety system and I pledge to the victims and the, you know, their families and friends that we will move forward. That’s my responsibility, I accept it.
Q: So there’s no compensation to them?
A: No.
Q: There won’t be any?
Moderator: Okay, that was our last question. Thank you Minister.
(2).jpg)
Canadian listeriosis report released: tough questions unresolved
Beginning in Aug. 2008, an outbreak of listeriosis linked to Maple Leaf deli meats was identified in Canada; 22 people would eventually die and at least 53 sickened.
In addition to the already available myriad of reports and testimonials comes the 181-page final report of Sheila Weatherill (right, exactly as shown) who was appointed directly by the Canadian Prime Minister.
The Investigation identified four broad categories where improvements need to be made. There must be:
- more focus on food safety among senior officials in both the public and private sectors;
- better preparedness for dealing with a serious foodborne illness with more advance planning for an emergency response;
- a greater sense of urgency if another foodborne emergency occurs; and,
- clearer communications with the Canadian public about listeriosis and
other foodborne illnesses, especially at risk populations and health professionals.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
(1).jpg)
After in-depth analysis and advice from food safety and public health experts, the Weatherill made 57 recommendations for improvements to Canada's food safety system. The recommendations address:
- the safety culture of food processing companies;
- the design of food processing equipment;
- government rules and requirements for food safety;
- the need for food service providers to adopt food safety practices aimed at vulnerable populations; and
- government's capacity to manage national foodborne illness emergencies.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Weatherill had a five-person advisory committee of food safety types including Bruce Tompkin, Mansel Griffiths and Michael Doyle. The full report is included below, but is painfully slow to scroll through, so these comments are based on a cursory reading; more details to follow. I did however find that Weatherill recommended precautionary labeling – warning labels – for vulnerable populations like pregnant women and old people. That’s a start.
(1).jpg)
Who knew what when?
The report presents a timeline of the listeria outbreak, but offers little in the way of analysis. In the past the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has placed import holds on fresh produce based on epidemiological and test results conducted in the U.S. But in the listeria outbreak of 2008 (if that’s what it’s going to be called) somehow, epidemiology and positive test results from an opened package of Maple Leaf deli meat weren’t sufficient to trigger a public health warning; CFIA argued the dead-or-dying person could have contaminated the unopened package of deli-meat, so they waited until the same DNA fingerprint was found in an unopened package, another three days of inaction. So why the different standards of proof for foreign and domestic foods? What exactly is CFIA’s policy on going public? CFIA could just publish something, rather than risk a full public inquiry to get answers; CFIA bureaucrats could just be accountable to the folks that pay their salaries.
The report also talks about the need to educate Canadians about listeria and food safety. I prefer inform to the indoctrination of education, but don’t let government types do it. David Butler-Jones (below, left), Canada’s chief medical officer of health, told Canadians at the height of the listeria outbreak,
.jpg)
“There are the usual things we should always be doing, like washing hands, storing and cooking food properly, washing fruits and vegetables well, and avoiding unpasteurized milk and milk products…”
No idea what this has to do with listeria and ready-to-eat foods.
Also, why long-term care facilities were feeding cold-cuts to a vulnerable population is baffling – unless food safety really isn’t taken seriously by all kinds of groups (gasp).
Finally, contrary to the complete bullshit statements of various politicians and bureaucrats in the early days of the outbreak, the system did not work.
Robert Clarke, the assistant deputy minister of the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Aug. 22, 2008, that the government's actions in this case were quite rapid and an illustration of success.
“I'm glad we got hold of it early and now we'll take serious steps working with the feds to put it behind us."
It was a disaster I’m sure you’d want to put in the past.
The issues raised are not going anywhere. And Maple Leaf, why wait for more government reports? Put warning labels on your products, make listeria test results public, and market your food safety efforts directly to consumers.
Sprout producer found their own listeria
After Listeria monocytogenes was found in their sprouts at a retail store about two months ago, Chang Farms started looking for the pathogen themselves.
And now they've found it.
The recalled products are packaged in 10-pound bulk bags and 12-ounce retail plastic bags, labeled under the Chang Farm brand as soy sprouts. The products were distributed to retail stores and wholesalers throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
Being the first to find a problem in your own product shows a certain degree of food safety culture.
Having a problem twice in two months says something a little different, but they're moving in the right direction.
The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants should go above and beyond the minimal government standards, which, as the company pointed out after the discovery at retail, do not require L. monocytogenes testing for sprouts.
Now, they can tell consumers about the extra control measures they've got in place... should they one day have a website.
Another foodsafetyathome website - as bad as Journey
If you ran a $5.5-billion-a-year corporation that made a variety of ready-to-eat deli meats, and those products killed 22 people and sickened another 53, causing the company to lose millions and trust in the food safety system to be further undermined, how would you go about rebuilding that trust, that brand?
(1)(1).jpg)
Maybe make public all the listeria test results the corporation undertakes in the form of a live, continuously updated website; maybe have live video cameras that people could check out on the Internet to see how these delicious deli-meats are made; maybe market these food safety initiatives at retail.
Or blame consumers.
Maple Leaf Foods announced yesterday as part of their continuing Journey to Food Safety Leadership – I wish they were already there, but Don’t Stop Believin’ – they were launching a food safety at home website.
“In keeping with our mandate of becoming a leader in food safety education, we have launched a new website to help consumers understand the important role of food safety at Maple Leaf and in your homes.”
(I have this stupid Journey video on in the background that I’m about to paste below and I can’t tell whether it’s the music or that statement that just made me barf a bit in my mouth.)
If Maple Leaf believes they can be leaders in food safety education, why is there no mention that pregnant women shouldn’t eat Maple Leaf or any other deli meats or other refrigerated ready-to-eat foods?
More data; less Believin’.
And Journey still sucks.
Soft-serve safety redux
In part two of the Toronto Star's investigation of soft-serve ice cream safety reporters have stumbled upon a snack bar with an extraordinary amount of coliform in the treats. The biggest offender found during the blitz was the Kew Gardens snack bar (with coliform above 1000000 cfu/gram). When I was growing up, I probably visited that snack bar 10-15 times a summer.
When asked about the 1000000 cfu/g measure, Rick Holley, microbiologist from U of Manitoba responded:
"Oh my God. This is not good," With results this high, "the product is hazardous," said Holley, adding the spectre of serious health implications is also magnified.
"The real concern here is listeria," he said. "And it's going to happen."
After learning of the result on Thursday, [Kew Gardens snack bar] manager Danny Foulidis ordered the machine shut down and sanitized.
"We've always been a clean establishment. We've never had an issue. If there's something we need to change to make things better, it's not a problem on our part."
During the past week, Gerry Lawrence, food safety manager at Toronto Public Health, has fielded calls from worried residents asking how to tell if soft ice cream is safe.
His advice: "If I'm buying ice cream for a youngster, I don't think I want to buy it from somebody that has greasy hands or isn't wearing a clean smock or even a baseball cap."
Holley, a member of a federal advisory panel struck in response to the Maple Leaf Foods listeria crisis, chuckles at the suggestion that protection comes down to gauging the cleanliness of an operator. "That's not the complete picture. You might have one person of that kind of appearance who plays a very minor role in handling products that are risky, such as these are.
Great quote by Holley after a poor suggestion from Lawrence. Visual cleanliness isn't a good indicator of anything, especially whether someone is going to get sick.
"It really does require that the folks who are responsible for making sure that all of the licence requirements of these people are met are conscientious in what they do and look at the whole picture. Whether or not they have time to do that is another issue."
The Star goes on to report on one of the factors that could lead to soft-serve contamination, the infamous O-ring.
Health inspectors generally do not check the inner mechanisms of machines, and experts warn that's where the danger lies, particularly in a $1.85 rubber O-ring that seals an area around a drive shaft that spins the ice cream. Michael Minor, former president of the Ontario branch of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors, said a worn ring can cause contamination to seep into the ice cream.
"Product that leaks from the refrigerated mixing vat into the back of the machine because of a faulty O-ring can be pulled back in to the soft-serve mix through reverse flow," Minor said.
Manufacturers suggest the rings be replaced every three months.
Minor is concerned some operators lack the knowledge or will to maintain their machines, which is central to assuring a safe product.
"This is not rocket science. It's not statistical analysis. This is a machine that needs attention and you need to understand it."
Holley and Minor both touch on one of the tenets of food safety culture: Operators need to know the risks associated with their products and how to manage them. Good operators know about sanitation, equipment maintenance and selecting good suppliers.
Death-by-cold-cuts Minister says Listeria inquiry not necessary
The person who is still, inexplicably, Minister of Agriculture in Canada, Gerry-death-by-a-1,000-cold-cuts-and-isn’t-my-moustache-awesome Ritz, said last night that despite the recommendations of a parliamentary committee, who were stonewalled by bureaucrats, a full public inquiry into the Maple Leaf Listeria mess that killed 22 people last year was not necessary.
.jpg)
That’s true, if only the bureaucrats at Maple Leaf, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada and dozens of others did their jobs and came publicly clean about who knew what when and what steps were taken to protect public health.
Until then, maybe the judicial route is best. But what a waste of resources, and more importantly, public confidence.
Canadian bureaucrats won't talk, so politicians demand full inquiry into Listeria outbreak; rendition of remorse was a little late
The Canadian politicians investigating last year’s listeria outbreak that killed 22 were so frustrated by the lack of information from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada they have demanded a full public inquiry.
The Globe and Mail reports this morning that a report to be released Thursday will conclude that the two-month parliamentary study was unable to gather enough evidence to get to the bottom of the outbreak. The call for a public inquiry represents a rebuke to the government's own investigation into the issue led by Sheila Weatherill, who will release a report this summer..jpg)
The committee report will also call for an overhaul of the Public Health Agency of Canada so that it becomes more of an independent health watchdog. The committee further recommends that inspection reports at food processing plants be released to the public.
And since CFIA and others are stonewalling, what with their “we went public when we had hard scientific proof” and epidemiology-is –for-wusses line, we’ve put together a timeline that should help the investigators in their, uh, investigation.
Chronology of testing events prior to the August 17, 2008 public alert of possible contamination of Maple Leaf Foods’ deli meats by L. monocytogenes
| Date | Event |
| May 2008 | Initial detection of Listeria spp. in environmental tests by Maple Leaf Foods |
| June 2008 | Initial detection of small increases of reported cases of listeriosis in Ontario by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care |
| July 21, 2008 | Acquisition of food samples acquired from Toronto long-term care home for testing |
| August 4, 2008 | Detection of L. monocytogenes in opened packages of deli meat from the home |
| August 13, 2008 | Confirmation of genetic similarities between the L. monocytogenes bacteria found in the deli meats and in ill individuals through DNA fingerprinting |
| August 16, 2008 | Detection of Listeria spp. in an unopened packed of Maple Leaf Foods deli meat |
And it took the Public Health Agency of Canada until Aug. 23, 2008, before they made a definitive link and then Michael McCain of Maple Leaf Foods went on his award-winning rendition of remorse.
U.K. targets listeria risk in old people - when will Canada?
I got an e-mail from the vice-president of communications for Maple Leaf Foods on Saturday afternoon.
She was sending me a blog that her boss, Michael McCain wrote, about his new knowledge of listeria and the role of food safety inspectors.
(1).jpg)
I figure she’s making at least $150,000 to do her vp communicating, so, even though I was a dick, I felt OK responding,
“Thanks for forwarding this in a timely manner. I blogged about it yesterday.”
It was about 24 hours earlier.
And while McCain and Maple Leaf go about enhancing their communications reputations, even the mother country, land of the cook-your-turkey-till-it’s-piping-hot advice, has decided listeria is a problem, maybe we can’t rely on manufacturers, maybe listeria is everywhere like Michael McCain says, so maybe we better tell old people they could be at risk.
The U.K. Food Standards Agency commissioned a bunch of research and figured out that people over the age of 60 are more likely to take risks with 'use by' dates than younger people and that eating food like cold-cuts beyond its 'use by' date increases the risk of food poisoning from listeria.
A recent sharp rise in the number of people taken ill with listeria has seen more older people affected. The number of cases rose by 20% in 2007 and has doubled since 2000, this increase occurring predominantly among people over 60.
The number of cases of listeria in people over 60 years of age has doubled in the past nine years. And one in three of the people who get food poisoning caused by listeria die as a result.
Listeria is a type of food poisoning bacteria that can live and grow in a wide range of food – chilled ready-to-eat food in particular – for example pâté, cooked sliced meats, certain soft cheeses and smoked fish.
Dr Andrew Wadge, Chief Scientist at the FSA, said,
The rise in listeria food poisoning among older people is worrying. Listeria can make people very ill, and 95% of cases end up needing treatment in hospital.
'There are some really simple steps people can take to prevent getting ill in the first place: be aware that 'use by' dates indicate how long food will remain safe, and then make sure you stick to them; always follow the storage instructions on the label; and make sure your fridge is cold enough – between 0°C and 5°C is ideal.
'These are the three messages that our new campaign is focusing on and Food Safety Week is a good time to be raising awareness of them."
VP communications thingy: stop sending me e-mails that you or any of your underlings – and I know how many people at Maple Leaf subscribe to bites.ksu.edu and barfblog.com – know was repetition and maybe work on an information strategy so that the genius dieticians in Canadian old-folks homes stop serving unheated cold-cuts to their patients. That’s how 22 people died last year.
More testing, not inspectors may have prevented listeria says McCain; will test results be made public?
Micahel McCain, the president of Maple Leaf Foods, was correct yesterday when he told a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event that adding more food inspectors to the plant floor would not have made a difference in preventing last August's listeria outbreak at one of its Toronto plants that caused 22 deaths.
.jpg)
"What is very important to recognize about bacteria is that you cannot see it. We wish you could visually inspect for bacteria, but it can't be seen with the eyes, tasted or touched."
The head of the $5.2-billion-a-year Toronto-based food giant was adamant that more testing was the only effective way to address the issue and that Maple Leaf has doubled the number of tests being undertaken.
Thank you for that lesson in microbiology, Mr. McCain. Yes, the inspectors’ union in Canada has been shamelessly exploiting the deaths of 22 people to get more shifts for its workers. Good of you to call them on it.
Now to the harder questions, which McCain continues to avoid.
Why didn’t Maple Leaf do more extensive testing prior to the outbreak? It’s not like there haven’t been listeria outbreaks in ready-to-eat refrigerated foods like cold cuts before.
Why won’t Maple Leaf make all of its listeria test results public, especially since it wants to build consumer confidence.
Will Maple Leaf put warning labels on its cold cuts to advise pregnant women and older folks that such products shouldn’t be eaten raw?
And to all the dieticians running the menus at the elderly folks homes where the 22 people died: what were you thinking serving cold cuts? How hard is it to heat a sandwich? Have any of you had any decent food safety training?
Campbell's boss smoking ... soup? Calls for Canadian-style food safety regs
Campbell Soup boss Doug Conant told the Canadian Embassy in Washington last night that the U.S. should abandon its two-regulator format for food and adopt a one-agency model like Canada’s, which would be more effective than product-label laws, adding,
“If the government of Canada can monitor the safety of its food products with one single food-inspection agency, why can’t the United States?”
There are probably other reasons Conant would like to clone the Canadians. If there’s ever an outbreak of foodborne disease, the public will hear about it last from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In last year’s listeria shitfest in which 22 died, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province of Ontario, Dr. David Williams, complained that CFIA waited nearly a month to inform health officials that contaminated ready-to-eat meats were being distributed to grocery stories -- a dangerous delay in issuing a product recall.
But Dr. Brian Evans, executive vice president and Chief Veterinary Officer of Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, wrote in the Ottawa Citizen that CFIA acted promptly once they were informed of a food source associated with two illnesses in a nursing home. Scientific evidence of contaminated meat products was confirmed on the evening of Aug. 16, 2008 and the CFIA issued a public advisory and recall eight hours later in the early morning hours of Aug. 17, 2008.
Apparently, only positive product tests count as real science at CFIA. Epidemiology, dead bodies, these are mere distractions. Is that really what the Campbell’s dude is endorsing?
Listeria-laden cheese hospitalized 38, killed 15 in Quebec last fall; producers want compensation
Here is what is lost in the gushing about raw-milk cheeses and many other forms of food pornography:
The fall 2008 outbreak of listeria in cheese in Quebec led to 38 hospitalizations, of which 13 were pregnant and gave birth prematurely. Two adults died and there were 13 perinatal deaths.
.jpg)
But, the discussion in Montreal over the past two days is about the fate of small cheese producers, who are apparently giving up.
Ever since last year's listeriosis outbreak, when provincial inspectors seized tonnes of Quebec cheeses believed to have been cross-contaminated by the listeria bacterium, Fromagerie Lehmann and other raw-milk cheese producers were visited constantly by officials on the lookout for the listeria bacterium.
Like 20 or so others, Lehmann finally gave up on raw-milk cheese altogether.
By some estimates, only 10 Quebec raw-milk cheeses remain. The others now are made with milk that's been heated to kill unwanted bacteria - and, some say, the flavours of the meadow and the changing seasons.
On Monday, the provincial ombudsman concluded the Quebec government was ill-prepared to handle the outbreak of listeria contamination in some cheese products last summer, but it was right to order a mass recall of the cheeses.
Sprout farm to begin testing for listeria
Close to 15,000 pounds of Chang Farm bean and soy sprouts were recalled from retailers and restaurants in four northeastern states last week after Listeria monocytogenes was found in a bag of sprouts at a retail store.
Speaking for the company, Sidney Chang said,
"We followed FDA guidelines to test for salmonella and E. coli 0517:H7. We don’t test for listeria, because they don’t require that."
So?
It is consumers who ultimately decide which food companies stay in business and make a profit, and consumers demand food that is free of all pathogens.
Is Chang Farm willing to step it up?
As stated in an article by The Packer,
“We want to make sure our facility is safe," Chang said. "We’re going to add more measures. We thought we were doing the right things.”
Dairy-free brownies and other sacrifices
It has been almost three months now that my diet has been more or less dairy free. Shortly after Sorenne turned two months old, she became plagued with eczema. Her pediatrician never recommended I change my diet, as he was satisfied that she continued to gain weight, but I couldn’t stand watching her turn red and try to scratch herself with little hands that she could barely control. A friend of mine, and many articles I read, suggested cutting dairy. My first reaction was – that will be the end of nursing. I am a cheese addict, I love butter, and really, dairy is one of my main sources of protein. Soy is fine – but giving up cheese? How cruel can life be?
I eventually decided that cutting dairy for a couple of days would not kill me, and Sorenne did seem to get a little better. But Doug and I were really not sure if it was the dairy or any number of other variables in our daily life that could be affecting her. I had changed detergents and soaps and made sure she wore only 100% cotton material in the meantime.
The first two weeks of avoiding dairy were very difficult. Giving up cheesecake was almost painful, but I eventually found substitutes and cheated a little here and there when necessary. Sorenne had flare ups that I attributed to a dairy allergy, but we really have no way of knowing for sure. Sorenne doesn’t complain – neither does Doug – and I brought this challenge entirely on myself. After I discovered tofutti cream cheese and (yes it’s gross) veggie cheddar, quitting milk no longer seemed like such a big deal. I noticed I’m generally less gassy (pleasant for everyone around me) and Sorenne vomits significantly less.
For the past week Sorenne’s skin has been almost entirely clear. Today, while contemplating the dairy-free brownies I was about to make, I realized that living dairy free is a challenge I enjoy. I still salivate thinking about Roquefort, but I lived without most of my favorite cheese throughout my pregnancy due to the risk of listeria. (At least now I can eat pâté without much worry.) Finding substitutes has been somewhat enjoyable with some pleasant side effects. For those who cannot enjoy dairy due to serious allergies or lactose intolerance, the diet may feel more like a burden. Worse yet, it’s scary to not know if an allergen has contaminated your food when you’ve been careful to protect yourself or your child. I’m fortunate to have a choice and a knowledgeable partner tolerant of my neurotic parenting.
This is how useless single food inspection agencies can be
When to go public remains a difficult question for public health types, but us mere mortals were offered a glimpse yesterday.
"To wait until one has evidence beyond doubt . . . is often too late to protect the public," McKeown said.
.jpg)
In front of a parliamentary subcommittee Wednesday, the medical health officers for Ontario and the City of Toronto chastised the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for its handling of last summer's listeriosis outbreak.
"This was a national outbreak, but it wasn't clear that the national public health dofficer had a mandate for leadership at the federal level," Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, told the committee.
Williams, along with Dr. David McKeown, Toronto Public Health medical officer, testified at a special parliamentary probing the state of food safety in Canada.
The committee was called after people consumed contaminated meat last summer from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto, resulting in the death of 22 Canadians.
That death toll was exacerbated by "a lack of effective communication" among health agencies, Williams said, along with what the health officers suggest are differences in reporting procedures between the federal health authorities, and their local and provincial counterparts.
Public health officials should act when there are "reasonable and probable grounds to believe food products poses a health hazard," McKeown explained, adding this "standard" is included in Ontario's public health legislation. But the CFIA generally waited for "conclusive evidence" a specific product is responsible for documented human illness before taking action, he said.
So, all these people died, the president of Maple Leaf thinks he's a food safety hero cause he's learned so much about listeria, and the food safety types at various levels are still talking bullshit.
The locals were left hanging by the omnipotence of the single food inspection agency.
Canadians - Listeria investigator wants to hear from you, or sell you a Sham-Wow
Sheila Weatherill, Independent Investigator, Listeriosis Investigation, Ottawa, Ont., who apparently has an affinity for upper case, writes in the Times & Transcript this morning,
(1)(1).jpg)
“Help us to help you! Give me your views on listeriosis.”
Oh, OK. I’m still Canadian, so my views are below the italicized questions asked by Weatherill.
Last summer Canadians began asking themselves whether their food was safe. Even though few had heard of it before, the term "listeriosis" became a household word.
Canadians began asking whether their food was safe a long time ago. Like after E. coli O157:H7 killed 19 residents in a London, Ontario, nursing home in 1985. But I understand history is not your strong suit. Or using Google. Listeriosis has been around a long time too.
I believe that ensuring the safety of our food supply is a priority for all of us. As the independent investigator, I feel a strong obligation to find out the facts and make recommendations to protect the health of Canadians.
I believe that with ready-to-eat meat products, the responsibility lies with the processor, not the consumer. Unless Canadians are supposed to start frying their smoked turkey breast.
I am interested in learning:
* How you first learned about the outbreak (e.g. TV, newspaper, radio, word of mouth)?
I first learned from a BS press release from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that contained the weasel words, “There have been no confirmed illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.”
Usually, CFIA press releases say there have been no illnesses associated with the product in question, if that is indeed the case. The “confirmed illness” was a wiggle phrase that Canadian media dutifully reported and then went back to sleep.
* How well do you think the crisis was managed? What else do you think should have been done?
Please let me know what you think. You can go to the "Listening to Canadians" link on the investigation website at www.listeriosis-listeriose. investigation-enquete.gc.ca or send an e-mail to contacts@li.listeriosisenquete.gc.ca.
My role as investigator ends on July 20, 2009. I hope to hear from you soon. Your opinions do count!
All of us have a duty to help ensure that such a tragedy doesn't happen again.
The crisis was handled poorly. No one –government, Maple Leaf – has provided a full accounting of who knew what when. And Weatherill, your questions suck. Why were nursing homes serving unheated deli meats, a known risk factor for listeriosis – which you may have recently discovered but lots of food science types or readers of newspapers heard about at least 10 years ago. And why are pregnant woman not more explicitly informed of the risks associated with listeriosis and consumption of ready-to-eat foods?
Canadian Association of Journalists still exists, says CFIA wins secrecy award
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has won the Canadian Association of Journalists' Code of Silence Award for 2008 for its dizzying efforts to stop the public from learning details of fatal failures in food safety.
.jpg)
"The judges were sick with awe at the intestinal fortitude the Canadian Food Inspection Agency gatekeepers have shown," said CAJ President Mary Agnes Welch. "It was clear that the CFIA's guard dogs found something they can really sink their teeth into."
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has delayed and extended, ad nauseam, requests related to the Listeria outbreak that killed 22 Canadians and triggered hundreds - perhaps thousands - of illnesses.
Requests filed for inspections records on the Toronto-area Maple Leaf plant at the centre of the outbreak took nine months to produce and communication records with the company are still embroiled in delays.
For one of the biggest public health issues to face Canada in recent years, details behind the cause of the outbreak, the apparent delay in warning Canadians and the agency's handling of the aftermath remain filled with unanswered questions.
The ignominious Code of Silence Award, handed out Saturday night at the CAJ's investigative journalism awards banquet, dishonours the country's most secretive government, department or agency.
(1).jpg)
Over 100 sickened with Hepatitis A linked to dried tomato product in Australia
A semi-dried tomato product mixed with garlic, herbs and oil has been linked to a spike in hepatitis A cases in at least three states, Australian health authorities say.
South Australian director of public health Kevin Buckett says there have been 26 cases in the state since March, more than 70 in Victoria and an increased number in Queensland.
The cases are thought to be linked to the tomato product, which is manufactured in both Victoria and Queensland and sold in various states by weight.
Queensland Health Deputy Director-General Aaron Groves says an investigation into the possible contamination of unpackaged, loosely purchased semi-dried tomatoes is underway.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail of Listeria
As part of her cultural education, about-to-be graduate student Katie has been exposed –inundated – with some of the favorite movies of Doug and Amy.
.jpg)
Last week it was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Young Katie wasn’t too impressed, and I’ll admit, the film has aged.
But certain bits still come readily to mind. When Amy asks me to clean up the yard and landscape, I think of the Knights Who Say Nee and ask for shrubberies from Roger the Shrubber. When Amy and her colleagues speak French, I want to taunt them John Cleese-style, such as, “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries.”
So when Canadian Agriculture Minister and would-be standup comedian, Gerry Ritz, told special parliamentary hearings tonight that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has "suffered a black eye" over last summer's deadly listeriosis outbreak and that it was time to "get past the politics of this issue and move forward," I couldn’t help but think of the scene from the Holy Grail after Lancelot has killed and maimed many of the wedding party celebrating the union of Prince Herbert and the huge tracks of land owned by Princess Lucky. Prince Herbert’s father, eager for land and not a swamp, says to the dead and wounded,
"What’s the point of bickering and arguing about who killed who, it’s time to move forward.”
The layers of the listeria onion are slowing peeling away, and if a few key reporters can keep their jobs before being swallowed by the Intertubes, Canadians may eventually find out who knew what when and why in the listeria shitfest of 2008.
Sarah Schmidt of Canwest reports tonight that CFIA is permitting food companies to use non-accredited laboratories to analyze some listeria tests after the industry shot down a pricey proposal tabled after last summer's deadly listeriosis outbreak requiring the use of accredited labs, according to newly released ministerial briefing notes. …
At the time of the listeriosis outbreak, such companies as Maple Leaf Foods were not required to conduct environmental listeria tests throughout their meat plants, including food-contact surfaces.
And if companies were analyzing these tests at in-house labs, CFIA inspectors were not required to review them.
.jpg)
The first rule of public health? CYA
I say the first rule of public health is, don’t eat poop.
And have fewer sick people.
Bureaucrats say the first rule of public health is, cover your ass (no, not like that) so that the department comes out smelling all pretty and not like poop.
So after 21 people die and a bunch more got sick from listeria in Maple Leaf deli meats, what do Canadian bureaucrats focus on? Covering their asses.
The heads of three federal agencies pivotal to last summer's listeriosis crisis (right, not exactly as shown) want a damning report by Ontario's top public health official "clarified and corrected."
The most senior officials at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada demanded the revisions in a recent letter to Dr. David Williams, Ontario's acting chief medical officer of health.
Williams also noted that almost a month elapsed between the first listeriosis death last summer and a widespread recall of suspect Maple Leaf deli meats.
The letter suggests that criticism is unfair.
The he-said-she-said may be mildly entertaining for bureaucrats– in both official languages -- but does nothing to ensure that fewer people barf in the future.
Instead, the federal triumverate of see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil could focus on:
• making listeria test results public in a timely manner;
• providing compelling information to at-risk populations, especially pregnant women and old folks, that maybe they shouldn’t be eating products at risk for listeria contamination (cause Michael McCain says it’s everywhere); and,
• provide clear guidelines on how outbreaks of foodborne illness are investigated and at what point sufficient evidence exists to warn the pubic.
Canadian politicians beware: Maple Leaf's Michael McCain isn't really that into you
He may ooze empathy and smooth, but Canadian politicians on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food’s Subcommittee on Food Safety beware: Michael McCain (below, not exactly as shown) really isn’t that into you.
Sure he got dressed up for the committee appearance last night, prefaced it with a little foreplay at a luncheon for business types, and said I’m sorry, it was all me, but when a guy says that, he really means, it’s all you.
McCain just wants to get into your pants, or pants pockets, in the form of public tax dollars for inspections to ensure a future food safety façade so the profits at Maple Leaf Foods won’t be further inconvenienced by death and illness from deli meats.
McCain of Maple Leaf Foods has become the latest corporate type to ask for government help in the form of increased inspection. The dude from Kellogg’s did the same thing in the U.S., as did the growers of lettuce and spinach in California, and tomatoes in Florida. They all said the same thing: we can’t figure out how to provide a safe product while sucking in profits, so government, please, do it for us (that way, when there is an outbreak, we can at least say we met enhanced government standards). If anyone wants to know why government at best sets a minimal standard, read the testimony of Carole Swan, President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Dr. Brian Evans, Executive Vice-President of CFIA.
All of this is tragically embarrassing.
And this ain’t rocket surgery.
Opposition MPs praised McCain for taking responsibility for the tragedy and questioned whether the government should do more to accept part of the blame.
No. Stop being taken in by the fabulously handsome McCain. The best food producers and processors will go far beyond government standards to provide a safe product; they make the profit; they should make it safe. They should brag about it.
McCain told business leaders earlier on Monday, perhaps after a lunch of liquor and delicious deli meats, that the food industry "has to raise its game" because it doesn't take food safety seriously enough.
“This industry has to raise its game. It has to take food safety more seriously, it has to invest more in food safety, and it has to improve its record of delivering safe food to consumers."
Wow. Sixteen years after Jack-in-the-Box and McCain and his $5.5 billion a year company discovers food safety after killing 21 people. He also felt it necessary to lecture parliamentarians and others that ‘poke and sniff’ methods of inspection were outdated. That rhetoric is at least 20-30 years outdated.
You know (a listener said my overuse of ‘you know’ on a Baltimore phone-in show yesterday was appalling and that as a professor lecturing to ‘glasses’ I should know better; I told him I had a voice for print and he should watch his spelling) Amy and I need people to help out with baby Sorenne. I’m not sure we need a village, but babysitters and friends are handy a few hours a week so we can slog through some work. Or shower. Sorenne is 4-months-old.
I’m somewhat baffled, however, when the so-called leaders of multi-billion dollar corporations or producer groups ask for babysitters in the form of government inspectors. Are your managers 4-month-olds that need someone to play ga-ga with? Help to get in their walker?
.jpg)
Canadian parliamentarians, stop being swooned by this guy. NDP MP Malcolm Allen said, “The only way you can get trust back with the public is through third-party verification.”
Apparently the star-struck Mr. Allen, thinking he was asking a tough question, showed himself as the star-struck girlfriend, who knows nothing about food safety, like the shitfest of third-party (non)verification at the Peanut Corporation of America plant which led to nine dead and 600 sick from Salmonella.
Here’s what is appalling about all this: no one, or at least me, expects anything but the bare minimum from government. The CFIA types can say they’re sorry all day, they’ll still have jobs and still go off for six-months of French lessons to move up in the Canadian government bureaucracy.
Michael McCain (above, exactly as shown), who runs that $5.5. billion a year company manufacturing products identified for decades at high risk of listeria, could stick with, yeah, we screwed up, we should have learned from all these past listeria outbreaks, we should have paid attention to the positive test results sitting in our filing cabinets, we’re sorry.
As Steve Martin once said, ‘But Noooooooooooo.’
Instead, McCain makes a big deal out of hiring a food safety dude after the fact, and lectures the rest of the industry and the country on what should be done; instead it’s like dating the worst kind of reformed smoker or born-again addict preaching to everyone else: forget minimal government regulations, forget the preaching, sell safe food. Listeria didn’t just come along 10, 20, 30 years ago, or yesterday, as you would have Canadians believe.
McCain, take care of your own shop, the one that happily makes money. Then maybe we can talk about another date.
Until then, I’m just not that into you.
More Canadian listeria reports; more bureaucratic BS
The bureaucrats have been busy.
Three more Canadian government studies on the listeria outbreak of 2008 which killed 21 were quietly posted Friday afternoon while the House of Commons was adjourned – what the Canadian Press called a traditional dumping ground for news the government wants to bury.
.jpg)
The Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency each released their Lessons Learned Report today, following a thorough review of the steps taken during last year’s tragic listeriosis outbreak.
Despite the fact that Canada has one of the best food safety systems in the world, and that outbreaks like the one in the summer of 2008 are extremely rare, it was clear that further improvements were needed.
Who writes this shit?
I already read one government report today and wanted to gouge my eyes out. I’ll need to spread these out over the weekend with viewings of old movies which make me feel secure and happy, like Monty Python and the Holy Grail which is playing right now.
Some early highlights from media coverage:
Despite having an emergency response protocol, the CFIA never did activate an emergency operations centre as laid out it the plan. Still, the report concludes: "In general, the CFIA exercised its inspection and other statutory powers during the recall process."
The CFIA report first congratulates federal agencies on their "timely and appropriate exchange of information."
But under the heading "Areas for Improvement," the report states that timely determination of an outbreak and timely notification of the public require "additional clarity at provincial and federal levels ... as to protocols and leadership roles."
Conservative Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was the lead government spokesman during the crisis, and came under fire for making a tasteless joke about "death of a thousand cold cuts" during one internal conference call.
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett said she can't understand why Ritz was given the role of communicating to concerned Canadians.
"It seems that there was interference, political interference, in what was clearly a public health outbreak that should have been managed by public health officials and done in a clear communication with the people of Canada.”
Bureaucrats blame and battle over Canadian listeria outbreak; still can't answer basic questions
The feds failed miserably during the Aug. 2008 outbreak of listeria that claimed 21 lives across Canada but the province of Ontario handled the outbreak well and that, "compared to other outbreaks, experts will say this went amazingly fast.”
I have no idea who these experts are that Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, said would endorse the response to the outbreak other than other bureaucrats and politicians who were quick to praise themselves in the early days of the outbreak. And while media accounts are focusing on the bureaucrat blame game, they’re giving the Williams report little more that a fawning glance.
.jpg)
The good news is that the report has a basic timeline of who knew what when, at least from the perspective of Ontario bureaucrats. By Aug. 1, 2008, the Ontario “Public Health Division identifies 16 cases of listeriosis in the month of July: the majority were in elderly people who had been in a long-term care home or hospital.”
By Aug. 4, 2008, the Listeria Reference Lab confirms that three food samples from Toronto long-term care home – all opened 1 kg packages of meat cold cuts – are positive for Listeria.
Yet the first public warning didn’t happen until the early hours of Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008.
This is the bad news. Other questions are simply ignored in the report -- like what are long-term care facilities doing serving cold-cuts to the immunocompromised elderly? Should there be warning labels or additional information provided to others at risk, such as pregnant woman? Why aren’t listeria test results made public?
The report does say the medical officer of health for Canada was missing in action during the outbreak, and that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency hampered the overall investigation.
Maple Lodge to market food safety on deli meats; will Maple Leaf follow?
Maple Lodge Farms is Canada's largest independent chicken processor and I’ve been to the slaughter plant in Brampton, Ontario. With all the Maple Leaf listeria stuff over the past eight months, Maple Lodge has been sorta quiet.
Until today.
Maple Lodge chief executive officer Michael Burrows unveiled a new high-pressure method of killing listeria and other bacteria in sliced luncheon meats after the package is sealed. The process applies water under extremely high pressure to the packaged product, has no adverse impact on the product itself, and has been approved by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
So Maple Leaf, using that newfangled blogging technology, responded by saying Maple Leaf Foods was an early adopter of Ultra High Pressure (UHP) technology in Canada and began using it in Maple Leaf Simply Fresh entree products when they were introduced more than two years ago, in a bunch of other products, and will look at using it in deli meat if it can provide added food safety assurance to consumers.
Maple Leaf, seriously, you need better writers.
But this is what I like about the Maple Lodge approach:
They came out and said internal research showed consumer demand for higher levels of food safety has risen sharply in the past year, and that consumers would be willing to pay a premium of 1-2 cents per 100 grams of product to get it.
Maybe, consumers will say anything on a survey but vote with their money at checkout.
But Maple Lodge is going to label the stuff with a" SafeSure" sticker and market food safety at retail.
Good for them. Rather than lecturing consumers, let them choose. At checkout.
Parking lot cheese sickens three in Illinois
Don’t buy cheese in a parking lot.
That should probably apply to raw seafood as well.
Winnebago County Health Department Administrator J. Maichle Bacon said at least three people have been sickened and four more cases are being investigated after buying cheese from parking lot vendors.
The Rockford Register Star reports that samples of the cheese are still being tested at the Illinois Department of Public Health laboratory in Springfield, but had been found positive for fecal coliform and Listeria.
The three confirmed cases were positive for the bacteria Campylobacter jejuni. Bacon said,
“This, of course, is a product that would never be approved for sale.”
Maple Leaf discovers food safety - too late
During the Bite Me ’09 road trip, a very prominent food safety colleague told a very public audience that he wasn’t so impressed when a company hired a chief food safety dude after the poop had hit the fan.
.jpg)
Me thinks he was talking about Maple Leaf Foods, a Canadian company doing $5.5 billion a year in sales that decided it needed a chief food safety officer after killing 21 people with its listeria-laden deli meats last fall.
On March 25, 2009, Maple Leaf announced it was launching an external company blog at http://blog.mapleleaf.com. The first posting, "The Journey to Food Safety Leadership," is a letter written by President and CEO, Michael McCain.
Anything mentioning Journey should be banned. So many times while flipping the radio during the Bite Me ’09 3600-mile roadtrip, a Journey song would come on. And they’re on some new ad. Horrible, horrible music.
So it’s apt that Maple Leaf Foods chose a Journey to food safety because like the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, they are all aggressively mediocre.
The letter from McCain is not a blog post: it’s a missive that needs some serious editing for brevity. There’s been a couple of other posts that run the gamut from boring to pedantic. My group has written a paper on what makes a good blog post. McCain may want to check it out.
McCain and his food safety hire, Randy Huffman, are apparently touring the editorial boards of the remaining newspapers in Canada as a prelude to parliamentary hearings that begin next week on the future of Canada's food safety system.
“We are going to be advocating more regulation, not less. More-stringent protocols, not less-stringent protocols. We're going to be advocating more transparency and a stronger role for government, not a reduced role.”
Of course they are. Just like leafy green growers and the dude from Kellogg’s. Isn’t it embarrassing when industry – the ones who make a profit – says, we can’t do this ourselves, we need a babysitter.?
He (McCain) was accompanied by the company's new chief food safety officer, Randy Huffman, whose appointment and position are being touted as evidence of Maple Leaf's responsiveness to the crisis.
(1)(1).jpg)
I’ll defer to my very prominent food safety colleague.
McCain also told the Globe and Mail this morning,
“We have to be candid and open and honest to the Canadian public, as does the industry and government. In the world of food safety we can do the very best job we can, but zero risk is not achievable based on what we know today.”
Dude, I co-wrote a book called Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk back in 1997 that said zero-risk was unachievable and consumers actually don’t want that. They just want to know that whoever is in charge is doing what can be reasonably expected to reduce risk. Twelve years later and McCain feels it necessary to lecture the Canadian public about this stuf? Had McCain really never heard about the 1998 outbreak of listeria associated with Sara Lee hot dogs?
Back to the questions the Globe editorial board apparently forgot to ask while fawning over McCain: should Maple Leaf products contain warning labels for pregnant women and old folks; why aren’t Maple Leaf listeria results publicly available; and who knew what when in the days leading up to the Aug. 2008 recall?
Bad TV, good advice
TLC, the same channel that’s home to the popular show Jon and Kate Plus 8, aired I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant last night, and I’m embarrassed to say I watched it.
Before commercial breaks the show posed questions to viewers, one of which was: True or false, pregnant women should not consume unpasteurized milk or cheeses? I answered true, and I was correct.
Pregnant women should avoid certain foods including unpasteurized milk, or foods made with it as these foods may contain Listeria, which can cause premature delivery, miscarriage, still birth, or serious health problems in a newborn. In addition to unpasteurized milk, some soft cheeses, luncheon meats, refrigerated smoked seafood and soft serve ice cream should be avoided. A full list is available from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, here.
That’s Kate Gosselin, TLC’s ratings booster, right, while pregnant with sextuplets.
ONTARIO: Smoked salmon recalled over potential listeria contamination
Last year Maple Leaf products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes caused at least 20 deaths and 56 illnesses, and now the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced a recall of Niagara Smoked Fish Ltd. smoked salmon for potential contamination with the same organism, reports the Ottawa Citizen.
The federal government has recalled nine kinds of smoked salmon after a batch destined for export was rejected at the United States border… [Niagara Smoked Fish Ltd.] also sold the product in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, but Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials don’t know how many packages were shipped to stores or made it into customers’ refrigerators. Nor do they know whether any ended up in restaurants.
Why was it caught at the border, and not during regular product testing? How can it be unknown where the salmon ended up? Niagara Smoked Fish Ltd. should have a recall protocol, especially when producing a product commonly associated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The Mississauga plant has been closed for investigation, meanwhile consumers can find a list of recalled products here. There have been no reported illnesses associated with consumption of these products.
Are web searches indicators of disease outbreaks? Is Twitter useful?
I’ve tried playing on Twitter, the social networking tool that keeps things self-obsessed and brief, and now that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have weighed in and told me what to think, I agree:
Twitter sucks.
In a related item, researchers from Ottawa and Harvard reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal today that search engine queries of the term "listeriosis" demonstrated a possible signal of the deadly outbreak that killed 20 Canadians a month before the official announcement was made.
Or not.
One of the researchers, John Brownstein of Children's Hospital Boston, said,
"In the case of listeriosis, as soon as the outbreak was announced we saw people in Canada searching for the word "listeria.' That's not surprising. The media drives a lot of people's search habits on the web."
But searching for the more technical term "listeriosis" began about a month before the public announcement, "and peaked a couple of weeks before."
The researchers don't know who was doing the early searchers. It could have been food inspection or industry officials investigating the possibility of the outbreak, they say, or queries by family and friends of people diagnosed early.
People were not diagnosed that early, except a couple. Much of the diagnoses came after initial media coverage.
And in another related item, newspapers are dying. But more targeted forms of information are doing okay. People, individuals, are still required to investigate, to probe and to weave disparate data into compelling stories, whether it’s journalism, public health or science.
People writing on Twitter, “I farted,” does not mean there is an increase in gastrointestinal upsets. People searching the Internet for listeriosis would not have prevented listeria bacteria from accumulating in Maple Leaf slicers and killing people.
Whole Foods - purveyors of food porn
Baby Sorenne is three-months-old today. She slept eight-straight hours last night. Awesome.
Whole Foods Market figures I’m part of their demographic, and is rolling out a Whole Baby promotion.
Throughout the month, in-store lectures by Whole Body experts will provide shoppers with information on such topics as prenatal top priorities, natural baby care choice, tips and concerns for breastfeeding mothers and top 10 "first food" facts.
I checked out Whole Foods' food safety expertise, which they claimed they were really good at. Maybe they were using the same nutritionists and dieticians as in all those Canadian seniors’ homes who thought it was OK to feed listeria-laden cold cuts to the immunocompromised elderly. Nowhere in the Whole Foods literature is there any statement that pregnant women should avoid refrigerated ready-to-eat foods like soft cheeses, smoked salmon and deli meats.
But Whole Foods, like so many other groups, does manage to blame consumers for the bulk of foodborne illness, in the absence of any data to support such a claim.
Food safety is pretty high on everyone's list of "things to be aware of," especially in light of the food recalls and poisoning scares that seem to happen all too frequently. But believe it or not, the ones you hear about on the TV news aren't the most common — a good deal of food poisoning is caused by improper food handling in home kitchens.
.jpg)
Whole Food customers are paying a premium for foodstuffs, only to be told that the company carefully checks the paperwork for all the products it sells, but can do no better than the minimal standard of government. “For the thousands of products we sell, that’s the extent we can go to. The rest of it is up to the F.D.A. and to the manufacturer.”
Whole Baby is going nowhere near baby Sorenne.
Listeria la bamba
The beat goes on.
Brian Evans, executive vice-president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, wrote in the Globe and Mail this morning that the only part of a July 24 meeting between officials from Maple Leaf Foods and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that concerned listeria centred around consistency between Canada's approach to import testing and monitoring, and that of other countries.
Michael McCain of Maple Leaf said the same thing in a March 4, 2009, press release,
"While we welcome open discussion of the outbreak in any and all reviews to ensure appropriate lessons are drawn from this tragedy, we take the strongest possible exception to any inference that we withheld information from the public."
As I said March 4, those explanations are probably true.
But CFIA and Maple Leaf -- especially Maple Leaf if it’s the world-class thingy it claims to be – need to publicly state, for the record, who knew what when, instead of continuous damage control every time someone asks a question.
Evans also writes today that,
These consultations had nothing to do with the listeria outbreak that was brought to light several weeks later and to which the agency responded quickly and professionally.
No one can judge whether the agency responded quickly and professionally because a detailed timeline of who knew what when is simply not available. If McCain really valued “open discussion of the outbreak” they would publicize their own listeria test results leading up to the public recall in an outbreak that killed 20.
Bamba bamba.
Canadian government and Maple Leaf need to come clean on who knew what when in listeria outbreak
Let the dancing begin – the wordplay salsa, the Ottawa shuffle, the Rideau skate.
Whatever it’s called there’s a lot of wordsmithing this morning as Canadian Press reports that listeria was discussed at a July 24, 2008 meeting between suits from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Maple Leaf, despite previous denials that listeria was ever mentioned.
.jpg)
CFIA and Maple Leaf now say they initially denied Listeria came up at the July meeting because it was not mentioned in the context of Canada's outbreak, which at that date had yet to be confirmed by lab tests.
So media outlets are running with the story, even though CFIA executive vice-president Brian Evans has a perfectly solid explanation that there was "absolutely no discussion" during the meeting about Listeria being linked to one of Maple Leaf's Toronto processing plants.
"Discussions focused on ensuring consistency of import monitoring with other jurisdictions for microbial pathogens, including Listeria.
"As the executive vice-president of CFIA, I have had countless conversations about Listeria and microbial control with industry. This kind of general conversation about food safety is par for the course during meetings with industry."
That’s probably true. But CFIA and Maple Leaf -- especially Maple Leaf if it’s the world-class thingy it claims to be – need to publicly state, for the record, who knew what when, instead of continuous damage control every time someone asks a question.
Notes from the July meeting, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, show that while Mr. Evans and Mr. McAlpine (of Maple Leaf) did talk about hog and pork operations, they also discussed "food safety in relation to Listeria."
Further information is blanked out in the documents released by the CFIA.
Way to build consumer confidence. Stop being reactive and take control of the situation. Or maybe there is something to hide.
Maple Leaf discovers the thesaurus
Amy and me and baby Sorenne are headed to Boston, leaving Manhattan (Kansas) at 3 a.m. tomorrow. And whatever stresses come along, it’s good to remember the basics.
Amy and me, we like to write, and we make each other better. We also surround ourselves with others who want to do things better.
(1).jpg)
Michael McCain (right, exactly as shown) may run a $5.5 billion a year company but Maple Leaf Foods has lousy writers. They’ve got the on-line thesaurus to find synonyms like stringent, thorough and rigorous, but the writers utterly fail to explain what this means.
Yesterday, Maple Leaf Foods Inc. reported a fourth quarter loss that narrowed on higher sales and helped by price increases, fluctuations in the Canadian dollar and contributions from acquisitions. Results, however, were impacted by the recall of meat products, contaminated with a strain of listeria bacteria, linked to the illness and death of several consumers.
Uh, 20 dead and at least 56 sick is not several consumers.
The same day, Maple Leaf announced that it is proceeding with a voluntary recall of approximately 1,100 cases of wieners produced at its plant in Hamilton, Ontario because the products were shipped in violation of the company's rigorous food safety protocols. …
Under Maple Leaf's stringent food safety protocols, the Company tests for listeria species, not Listeria monocytogenes. Six species of Listeria exist, but only one, Listeria monocytogenes, has any potential to impact human health. This is an extremely conservative approach as it treats any positive listeria test result with the highest level of corrective actions. Due to human error, a small quantity of wieners produced at the Hamilton plant that were quarantined under these routine enhanced procedures was inadvertently shipped to distribution centres and customers in Eastern Canada. All customers have been notified and product is immediately being removed from inventory or store shelves and returned to the Company.
Why is the Company capitalized? Will the Canadian economy shrivel if one questions the Company? And did Michael McCain call each customer?
"Unlike other situations, this event occurred as a direct result of human error and did not uphold our stringent industry leading protocols." said Michael McCain, President and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods. "Notwithstanding the exceptionally low risk this represents, Maple Leaf is committed to maintaining the most stringent standards and we intend to live by those standards so consumers can have absolute confidence in the integrity of our products. We are taking immediate action and will not condone anything other than strict adherence to our protocols."
That’s a lot of words to say we screwed up, again. But it gets better.
"As we have seen with the wide range of food products which have been recalled to date in 2009, as enhanced surveillance becomes more pervasive in the food industry, positive listeria findings and related recalls will occur more frequently. This should be regarded positively as it provides assurance that the industry and government are acting swiftly to protect public health", said Mr. McCain.
(2)(1).gif)
Who is we? What are these food products that have been recalled in 2009? The ones that contain peanut paste shit? Or just listeria ones? Who’s enhanced surveillance? Sara Lee’s Bil Mar unit had a listeria outbreak linked to hot dogs that killed 20 in 1998. Why is Maple Leaf bragging about enhanced surveillance 10 years and another 20 deaths too late?
Maple Leaf has implemented the most stringent food safety system in Canada.
Canada? Where they have visiting U.S. Presidents sign a guest book and worship their vengeful beaver gods with offerings of back bacon and doughnuts (go to 1:25 min in the video below).
As I said in the Toronto Star this morning,
"People, especially kids, eat ... processed hot dog wieners all the time (without cooking them) or just give them a quick zap in the microwave."
Michael McCain, since you’re the face of Maple Leaf, do you let your kids eat processed wieners straight out of the refrigerator? Should there be warning labels on packages of hot dogs not to eat them without cooking to a sufficient internal temperature?
Microwaving listeria out of potatoes
Minnesota-based food maker Northern Star is recalling several different refrigerated potato products after some samples were found to have Listeria monocytogenes.
According to WCCO-TV, a former employee had already reported concerns about listeria on plant equipment to the FDA.
I’m not sure what his role was in the company, but he told the news crew,
“…I like to protect the people who eat this product. I've seen mice all over the place. Cockroaches, black mold, listeria: I mean you name it, you can find it."
Sounds pretty gross, but—if necessary—most of the poop can be cooked out of food.
A report of the recall by kare11.com noted,
“Officials say properly cooking the food kills Listeria bacteria, but the Minnesota Department of Agriculture says often times people overlook the cooking instructions and simply heat these products in the microwave.”
It only takes a couple minutes to kill listeria if you can get the food up to 158F. A microwave can do this quickly, but unevenly. The cold spots that don’t get up to the right temp can still have listeria bacteria living in them.
Therefore, many manufacturers—such as Northern Star—don’t provide that option in the cooking instructions.
However, pretending people don’t use the microwave is not a realistic way to minimize the risk of someone getting sick.
Some have suggested acknowledging consumer use of microwave ovens by pasting DO NOT MICROWAVE on packages of foods that are likely to make people sick if they’re not cooked properly (like raw chicken thingies).
In the case of refrigerated hashbrowns, it’s probably reasonable to provide instructions for the microwave and include a little note on the dangers of uneven cooking.
This would give consumers the opportunity to make an informed decision on how they’ll cook their potatoes. Particularly when there’s poop in them.
So far, no illnesses have been reported in connection with this recall. Providing more information to consumers could help ensure that’s the case.
Great communications, lousy management: Is Maple Leaf the new Odwalla?
Last week I dusted off some old slides to talk with an industry group about best practices in food safety. I got bored of hearing myself say the same thing about 10 years ago, but sometimes, it’s best to stick to basics.
Risk analysis is composed of risk assessment, management and communication. Over the years I’ve studied dozens of outbreaks of foodborne illness and concluded that a producer, or processor, or retailer needs to be excellent at all three—assessment, management and communication – and if they fail at just one, they will suffer the economic and associated hardships.
There is no doubt that Michael McCain and Maple Leaf Foods has practiced excellent risk communication since being fingered as the source of a listeria outbreak in Canada that killed at least 20 and sickened 60. I’ve said so from the beginning. I’ve also said that
But that hasn’t stopped Canadians from gushing in a blindly patriotic way about how McCain set the ‘gold standard’ for reputational and financial management.
Maybe, but communications alone is never enough, just like science alone is never enough. And precisely because no one – government or industry – has come clean on who knew what when, it’s not surprising to hear
the Canadian federal government has delayed for months the release of notes on conference calls
held at the height of last summer's deadly listeriosis outbreak — a lag some experts say breaks Ottawa's own information laws.
.jpg)
At issue is an Access to Information request by The Canadian Press to the Privy Council Office for “all transcripts and minutes” of the crucial exchanges last August and September.
The Odwalla 1996 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in unpasteurized juice was also textbook risk communication, but the company was eventually revealed to have cut corners and ignored warning signs. Will Maple Leaf undergo similar scrutiny?
Below is an except from my 1997 book, Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk, about the Odwalla outbreak.
Sometime in late September 1996, 16-month-old Anna Gimmestad of Denver has a glass of Smoothie juice manufactured by Odwalla Inc. After her parents noticed bloody diarrhea, Anna was admitted to Children’s Hospital on Oct. 16. On 8 November 1996 she died after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest. Anna had severe kidney problems, related to hemolytic uremic syndrome and her heart had stopped several times in previous days.
The juice Anna — and 65 others who got sick — drank was contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, linked to fresh, unpasteurized apple cider used as a base in the juices manufactured by Odwalla. Because they are unpasteurized, Odwalla’s drinks are shipped in cold storage and have only a two-week shelf life. Odwalla was founded 16 years ago on the premise that fresh, natural fruit juices nourish the spirit. And the bank balance: in fiscal 1996, Odwalla sales jumped 65 per cent to $60 million (U.S.). Company chairman Greg Steltenpohl has told reporters that the company did not routinely test for E. coli because it was advised by industry experts that the acid level in the apple juice was sufficient to kill the bug.
.jpeg)
Who these industry experts are remains a mystery. Odwalla insists the experts were the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA isn’t sure who was warned and when. In addition to all the academic research and media coverage concerning VTEC cited above — even all of the stories involving VTEC surviving in acidic environments — Odwalla claims ignorance.
In terms of crisis management — and outbreaks of foodborne illness are increasingly contributing to the case study literature on crisis management — Odwalla responded appropriately. Company officials responded in a timely and compassionate fashion, initiating a complete recall and co-operating with authorities after a link was first made on Oct. 30 between their juice and illness. They issued timely and comprehensive press statements, and even opened a web site containing background information on both the company and E. coli O157:H7. Upon learning of Anna’s death, Steltenpohl issued a statement which said, “On behalf of myself and the people at Odwalla, I want to say how deeply saddened and sorry we are to learn of the loss of this child. Our hearts go out to the family and our primary concern at this moment is to see that we are doing everything we can to help them.”
For Odwalla, or any food firm to say it had no knowledge that E. coli O157 could survive in an acid environment is unacceptable. When one of us called this $60-million-a-year-company with the great public relations, to ask why they didn’t know that E. coli O157 was a risk in cider, it took over a day to return the call. That’s a long time in crisis-management time. More galling was that the company spokeswoman said she had received my message, but that her phone mysteriously couldn’t call Canada that day.
Great public relations; lousy management. What this outbreak, along with cyclospora in fresh fruit in the spring of 1996 and dozens of others, demonstrates is that, vigilance, from farm to fork, is a mandatory requirement in a global food system. Risk assessment, management and communication must be interlinked to accommodate new scientific and public information. And that includes those funky and natural fruit juices.
U.S. Congressional questions better than Canadian food safety silence
Elizabeth Payne, of the Ottawa Citizen's editorial board, writes that when the president of Peanut Corp. of America was hauled in front of a congressional hearing in Washington last week, Canadians should have been paying attention.
.jpg)
And cringing.
Few things have underlined the gap in the way our two countries approach food safety like the sight of company president Stewart Parnell sitting with arms folded while a congressman, in a theatrical flourish, offered him some of his company's tainted peanut products. Mr. Parnell's company is at the centre of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 600 people and may have killed eight in recent months.
On this side of the border, Michael McCain of Maple Leaf Foods was named Business News Maker of the Year -- a year in which his company was found to be the source of a listeriosis outbreak linked to 20 deaths and hundreds of illnesses. To be fair, Mr. McCain took responsibility in a way that Peanut Corp. executives did not. He deserved recognition for his compassion and efforts to reassure a rattled public that it was safe to go back to the deli counter.
But that should not be the end of the story. The aggressive effort in the U.S. to quickly get questions answered about the tainted peanut outbreak there is instructive.
Payne goes on to say that already Americans know more about the mechanics and timeline of this salmonella outbreak than Canadians do about the gaps and failures than may have exacerbated the listeriosis outbreak.
Nearly seven months later, Canadians still don't know exactly who knew what when. There have been no answers to the crucial question of whether a quicker response could have saved lives and how a similar tragedy could be prevented or contained sooner. Until we know that, nothing has been learned from the 20 deaths. Instead of answers, we got a PR campaign, tasteless cold-cut jokes and a toothless and too-late investigation into what happened.
What's it worth to barf? Not much in Canada
Chapman and I have thrown around the idea that one of the reasons Canadians seem complacent about foodborne illness – despite several high-profile devastating outbreaks – is the availability of public health care. If someone loses a kidney because of E. coli O157:H7 or a liver because of hepatitis A, the cost is borne by the system. In the U.S. those without health care coverage would be out $100,000 – at a minimum. So Canadian lawsuits are kept to a minimum, media coverage remains stagnant, and everyone goes back to sleep.
(2).jpg)
As Jim Romahn wrote in Dec. after a $27 million settlement for victims in the Maple Leaf listeria outbreak that killed 20 and sickened hundreds was announced, CEO Michael H. McCain is a wily strategist.
For $27 million, tops, he has bought freedom from a court case that could have proven highly embarrassing to Maple Leaf. The ongoing coverage could well have become the final nail in consumer confidence in Maple Leaf products. The lawyers were sure to ask who knew what and when. They were sure to ask about the degree of plant contamination as the company continued to ship products, failing to first hold them for testing and clearance.
What does that $27 million buy?
• Someone who was ill for up to 48 hours would receive $750
• Up to a week receives $3,000
•Up to two weeks receives $5,500
• Up to a month receives $8,000
• If listeriosis led to a secondary infection that didn't cause ongoing symptoms, such as meningitis or pneumonia, the settlement is $35,000
• If listeriosis caused sustained or permanent symptoms, the settlement is $75,000 plus $750 for each day of hospitalization
• If secondary complications affected the nervous system and caused “serious and permanent impairment of physical and/or mental function,” payment is $125,000 plus $750 for each day of hospitalization. A family member who was affected psychologically could receive $10,000.
• A death would lead to a $120,000 payment to the victim's estate. A spouse would be eligible for an additional $35,000, while children could receive $30,000, parents could receive $20,000 and siblings or grandchildren could receive $5,000. Funeral expenses up to $13,500 would also be covered.
• Anyone who “sustained psychological injuries or trauma for up to 60 days” after eating tainted meat, without any injuries, could receive up to $4,000.
• Anyone who was at particular risk, such as pregnant women and the elderly, but did not become ill could receive up to $6,000 for psychological trauma that lasted up to 60 days.
• If psychological symptoms lasted more than 60 days, compensation is set at $13,500.
• Those in the vulnerable group who experienced psychological symptoms for more than 60 days could receive $17,500.
Listeriosis leads to 2 miscarriages in Chicago area
Recalls of food contaminated with listeria are fairly common. Today, it's sandwiches in Western Canada and frozen dough in Israel.
Also today, a reminder of why information about listeria needs to be rapidly, widely and creatively distributed.
.jpg)
Three pregnant Hispanic women in Chicago and suburban Cook County tested positive for listeriosis after becoming ill in late November and December, according to a release from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
All three women reported eating different types of soft cheese, the release said. One woman delivered her baby, who also tested positive for listeriosis, but the other two suffered miscarriages.
"It is very important that pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems avoid eating foods that are more likely to contain the Listeria bacteria, such as soft cheeses -- including Brie, feta and Mexican style soft or semi-soft cheese -- unless the product clearly states it is made with pasteurized milk," Dr. Damon state director of public health, said in the release.
Pregnant women are about 20 times more likely than other healthy adults to get listeriosis. About a third of all reported cases in Illinois happen during pregnancy. Infection during pregnancy may result in spontaneous abortion during the second and third trimesters, or stillbirth.
Maple Leaf takes on the tough issues
A press release this weekend explained that Maple Leaf Foods now tests for listeria daily in its plants.
And it looks like the company wants to address one of the tough issues by releasing data from its microbiological testing.
The release stated,
“Over the past three months Maple Leaf has collected over 42,300 test results across its 24 packaged meat plants… Our rate of positives tests across our plants is consistently less than 1%...”
Ben also noticed a statement on Maple Leaf’s website this weekend that indicated some action on another tough issue: communication with vulnerable people about possible risks involved with eating the company’s products.
A tip sheet for consumers says,
“Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems should always reheat deli meat and hot dogs until they are steaming hot.”
Now, will that kind of information show up on the package?
Only time will tell.
KATIE FILION: Listeria, pregnancy and Robert Pattinson
Last night I watched The Bad Mother’s Handbook, a British made-for-TV drama starring Robert Pattinson. In it, Pattinson plays a lovable nerd, Daniel, who falls in love with pregnant teenager, Charlotte.
Though Pattinson’s role is only supporting, he has a food safety moment when he runs to pregnant Charlotte, saving her from soft serve ice cream:
Daniel Gale (Pattinson): NO! Listeria can be present in soft cheese and squidgy ice cream, so you best get a Zoom instead.
What Pattinson’s character fails to mention is why the pregnant Charlotte should avoid indulging in this tasty treat. Listeriosis, the illness associated with Listeria monocytogenes, can be passed from mother to unborn child causing premature delivery, miscarriage, stillbirth or serious health problems in newborns, even when the mother is not experiencing symptoms of illness. The CDC has a list of foods to avoid while pregnant (http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/pregnancy_gateway/infection_list.htm#protect).
Foods on the list include luncheon meats and soft cheeses, and although the CDC list does not mention soft serve, several studies (Sydney 1996, Wisconsin 2003) have found soft serve to have dangerous levels of coliforms and other bacteria (associated with improper equipment sanitation and poor hygiene). Australia and New Zealand list soft serve ice cream as one of the foods pregnant women should avoid consuming.
So, like Daniel said, have a Zoom instead.
Canadian listeria coverage still sucks
Daughter Braunwynn returned to Ontario last night after a great visit.
Her super-sweet 16 is less than two weeks away, so during lunch on Sunday with Amy and Sorenne and Bob, we asked what she might be studying at university (not a fair question cause I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up).
She mentioned science, psychology, maybe journalism – she liked writing.
Amy and I sorta jumped, saying that if she wanted to write, then write, and that maybe J-school wasn’t the best place to learn writing.
I teach a journalism class on food safety reporting, but there’s not much to teach: writers write, and just like scientists, they need to ask the right questions.
Braunwynn, the 15-year-old, gets it; Canadian journalists covering Michael McCain, Maple Leaf and listeria? Not so much.
There are exceptions, like Rob Cribb at the Star, but a couple of holiday puff pieces stood out. On Jan. 4, 2009, the Canadian Press correctly noted that the Canadian government has not yet named the leader of a promised probe into the listeriosis outbreak that killed 20 people -- a lag critics say discredits an already suspect process.
But then they go on to excessively quote the union dude who thinks that inspectors with beer-like listeria googles are the solution. He represents the food inspectors union. Of course he wants more inspectors. As new NC State professorial thingy Ben wrote, more inspectors is not the answer.
(1).jpg)
Then there’s the researchers. They always want more research. And new technology. Oh, and to blame consumers. Because you know, consumers are the weak link when it comes to ready-to-eat deli meats. And when the researcher making such public proclamations is an advisor to Maple Leaf, that should be disclosed. Journalism 101. I’m sure glad my previously pregnant wife didn’t rely on your expert advice.
Bert Mitchell had it right the other day when he wrote that while Michael McCain has been gathering year–end goodwill for his handling of the Maple Leaf listeria outbreak, “it is too early for applause. Effective long term solutions have not been put in place.”
For the budding journalists, there are still basic questions to be answered, questions that have nothing to do with more research, more inspectors, a public inquiry or any other narrow special interest, but questions that may help prevent any future unnecessary deaths of 20 people and unnecessary illness of hundreds if not thousands of people:
.jpg)
• who knew what when;
• why aren’t listeria test results publically available; and,
• if listeria is everywhere, why aren’t there warnings for vulnerable populations?
Would having more inspectors really keep Listeria out of RTE meats?
Maybe I'm cynical about the whole thing, but I don't see overworked meat inspectors being the most important factor leading to the Maple Leaf/Listeria outbreak. I don't know what more inspectors would have done about Listeria living deep inside a slicer.
Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union representing food inspectors through the Public Service Alliance of Canada thinks the lack of inspectors and resources is exactly what the problem was -- and he's trumpeting that opinion again today.
In an article about the lack of progress of a promised government inquiry of the outbreak Kingston says changes proposed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency include more stringent oversight, more reporting and more rigorous testing.
"They sort of put all the right pieces in place except for one thing: they haven't been given any resources to do it. With all the government's talk about how well resourced the agency was, and how they were going to make sure that whatever needed to be done was done, they haven't come up with a single penny yet."
The union is calling for 1,000 more inspectors and veterinarians across the entire food-safety system. At least 200 more are needed for processed-meat inspection alone, Kingston says.
"If you talk to the average inspector out there, they figure they've probably got about twice as many plants as they feel comfortable with."
So what will these extra inspectors do, and how are they going to help companies like Maple Leaf implement the culture of food safety we hear so much about? Regulators need to evolve and do a better job helping folks from farm-to-fork to develop a food safety culture, and verify that their steps reduce risk are being implemented.
The best part of the article was related to the political dancing-with-stars mess around this magical inquiry:
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz's office deferred questions about the delay to the Prime Minister's Office.
"An announcement will be made in due course," said PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas.
Classic.
Bert Mitchell: Canadian listeria controls lacking
Bert Mitchell saw jim Romahn’s Dec. 22/08 piece about listeria and Maple Leaf Foods in FSnet and barfblog.com, and decided he had to write.
Dr. Mitchell’s no lightweight. Among other achievements, he was Director of the Bureau of Veterinary Drugs at Health Canada from 1982-1988,an associate director at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine from 1988-2001, and the current president of the American Association of Retired Veterinarians.
Bert says:
I want to congratulate and encourage Jim Romahn for his article Maple Leaf, Michael McCain, and Unanswered Questions. I read his article on the FSnet list serve webpage. I do not claim to be an expert in the microbiology of Listeria or manufacturing procedures to avoid it but I do want to encourage Jim, and others in his profession, because the picture of cause and control in this Maple Leaf case is incomplete.
(1).jpg)
While Michael McCain seems to be gathering year–end goodwill for his handling of the Listeria contamination in the Maple Leaf plant, I think it is too early for applause. Effective long term solutions have not been put in place.
Jim is on-point in arguing for better health protection in Canada. He is helping expose a glaring lack of complete information that should be readily available from Health Canada, CFIA, or Maple Leaf Foods about the source and spread of the Listeria found in sliced meat cold cuts that killed 20 Canadians and sickened many others. Specifically, he is spotlighting the continuing lack of the better labeling and improved manufacturing procedures needed to protect elderly, immune weakened, and pregnant persons. This example of poor health protection in Canada has been seen before. Listeriosis in people has occurred previously in Canada and because of regulatory inaction, it can happen again.
Listeria in cold cuts is a health threat that continues to exist in Canada. The recent hype from Maple Leaf in advertising the end of Listeria risk is just talk without support. If the company or the federal bureaucracy have evidence that labeling and manufacturing procedure changes are unnecessary, they should publish the evidence for the public to see.
As a result of inadequate labeling/manufacturing regulations, inadequate enforcement, and excessive collegiality between the federal bureaucrat and the industry it regulates, the Listeria public health threat continues to exist in Canada. About 10 years ago, the U.S. found Listeria in wieners. They changed labeling and required a post packaging cooking step. These changes appear to be the reason for no Listeria in U.S. cold cuts. For these 10 years, an apparently effective regulatory example has been on paper and worked effectively in practice to prevent Listeria in cold cuts in the U.S. The evidence of need for better Canadian labeling and manufacturing procedures for cold cuts seems obvious. What am I missing in this seemingly black-white image?
Investigative journalism is an important factor in uncovering the stinking wet spots that can exist within big bureaucracies and industries. Investigative reporting is particularly important in instances in which the public is indifferent to the issue or prefers to believe that the government can be trusted to always do what is right. Everyone has a responsibility to be vigilant about government action and inaction.
The investigative journalist reviews the evidence, thinks about alternatives, asks questions, and writes articles. In this case they write articles about why Canadians have died unnecessarily. Investigative journalism is a critically important element in effecting change. Jim Romahn has the right line of questions. He deserves nomination for yet another journalistic award.
In Canada, the labeling and manufacturing controls needed to control Listeria in cold cuts are not in place. Just as Canadians experienced no outbreak of Listeria for a decade, there may be none for years to come. What we do know is that the 2008 Listeria outbreak in Canada has not motivated sufficient change to prevent another outbreak and more unnecessary deaths. It is this flaw that Jim Romahn is addressing and the investigation I applaud.
Jim Romahn: Maple Leaf, Michael McCain and unanswered questions
Canadian reporter Jim Romahn writes:
Michael H. McCain is a wily strategist.
.jpg)
First, as president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., he made a big deal of dismissing advice from the company’s lawyers and accountants to not admit any liability for Canada’s most notorious case of food poisoning last summer.
He won praise from business reporters and public relations consultants for that.
In fact, the spin doctors had much more to say about that than the failure to safeguard consumers of Maple Leaf deli meats.
Now McCain has pulled an even better trick.
He has claimed the high moral ground in settling class-action lawsuits.
For $27 million, tops, he has bought freedom from a court case that could have proven highly embarrassing to Maple Leaf.
The ongoing coverage could well have become the final nail in consumer confidence in Maple Leaf products.
The lawyers were sure to ask who knew what and when.
They were sure to ask about the degree of plant contamination as the company continued to ship products, failing to first hold them for testing and clearance.
That, of course, is what’s being done now.
The lawyers will trot out evidence that more than half of the samples – one each from different batches or products – collected by municipal health units across Ontario contained Listeria monocytogenes.
The lawyers would no doubt challenge McCain’s claim that Listeria are so common in food-processing plants that it’s challenging at the best of times to eliminate them. They might have conceded that to be true of listeria in general, but would ask how Maple Leaf handled the more dangerous strain that showed up at the Bartor Road plant in Toronto.
The lawyers will ask why Maple Leaf ignored Health Canada warnings that cold cuts should not be served to people with weak immune systems – i.e. the elderly, infants and young children, pregnant women and those under medical treatment to suppress their immune systems.
Why do Maple Leaf’s cold cuts fail to warn these people about Health Canada’s advice? Of course, the same could be said of the labels on any Canadian-made cold cuts. Buyer beware!
The last place Canadians can turn to for answers to these questions is the inquiry Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised in the heated exchanges of an election campaign as the Listeria crisis continued.
I notice that Harper did not promise a PUBLIC inquiry.
He has not named a person or panel to head an inquiry.
He has not promised to reveal a report of an inquiry or its recommendations.
I’m certain the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Maple Leaf will be lobbying hard for Harper and his government to forget the promise of an inquiry. And, failing that to “contain the damage,” as the public relations are wont to advise.
So two goals scored by McCain so far. Will he make it a hat trick.
I sincerely hope not, but given Canada’s record on food safety in the food business, I’m far from optimistic.
Or as The Kids in the Hall asked, Who’s to Blame?
How safe is Canadian food? Don't ask
The Maple Leaf makeover continued this week – a promotional video, settling all lawsuits for $27 million – yet some lingering questions remain. And neither Maple Leaf nor the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is rushing to answer the hard questions:
.jpg)
• who knew what when;
• why won’t Maple Leaf make their listeria test results public; and,
• what is Maple Leaf Food's advice to those folks vulnerable to listeria.
Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star reports today that thousands of pages of documents detailing the federal government's handling of this summer's listeria outbreak are being withheld.
The Star and the CBC are seeking the records, which include emails sent between officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Maple Leaf Foods and the City of Toronto, through an access to information request.
The CFIA has imposed extensions of a year or more on top of the normal 30-day deadline for responding to such requests.
The joint investigation used the federal access to information law in the hope that a request would yield records showing what went wrong, when officials first knew of the outbreak's potential impact and how quickly the system kicked in to protect Canadians.
None of the records first requested four months ago have been released.
Repeated requests for an interview with Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz have been denied.
Maple Leaf's textbook video skips the hard questions
The most effective risk communication is also the most personal.
It’s about walking the talk.
Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods in Canada knows this, but just can’t quite pull it off.
McCain has personalized the message, taking responsibility for his deli meats that killed 20 people, but he can’t quite close the deal.
Below is a new video released today to, I guess, reassure Canadians.
From the beginning, I’ve asked some basic questions:
• who knew what when;
• why won’t Maple Leaf make their listeria test results public; and,
• what is Maple Leaf Food's advice to those folks vulnerable to listeria.
Mr. McCain, you’ve got some high profile science advisors now. Would they recommend that their pregnant daughters eat any cold cuts? Would you tell old folks homes not to serve unheated deli meats to their clients? Will you make listeria testing public? And will you provide a full accounting of listeria tests and actions in the weeks leading up to the recall of Aug. 17, 2008. Does epidemiology matter?
So many questions, none of which are answered in your video.
Listeria and Mother's Milk
Doug wrote a book called Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk about a decade ago. I still haven’t read it. I feel bad about that, but I don’t think it has the answers to my recent nursing questions.
When we were meeting with the lactation consultant in the hospital (Melanie – you are fabulous, by the way), we asked her if foodborne illness could be passed on to the baby. She said no. She said not to worry about viruses such as flu or colds and that the baby cannot get Listeria or Salmonella from anything I eat. 
Once home from the hospital, I immediately went for the pâté, brie, goat cheese (thank you Graduate Students!), and smoked salmon. Who knew that motherhood could be so delicious?
Listeria, mommies and me
Amy’s first meal after returning home with baby Sorenne? A snack spread of soft goat cheese with bite-sized pate and beet sandwiches, something I picked up from my Danish mentor, John Kierkegaard, back when I worked as a carpenter’s helper.
Smoked salmon or turkey breast, with tomato slices and fresh basil was on the menu for breakfast. That should cover many of the potentially listeria-laden foods that pregnant women shouldn’t eat for nine months. But you won’t hear that from listeria expert Michael McCain of Maple Leaf Foods, who is still strangely silent on the tough questions.
Amy’s mom was here for the birth and that turned out to be awesomely cool. But she did have to fly home through the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, which according to KNXV-TV, contains numerous restaurants with “major health violations. In some cases, repeatedly failing to follow health code requirements. …
“Famous Familigia in Terminal 4 received 17 major violations including ‘deli slicer soiled with food debris’ and 12 of 15 employees ‘without food service worker cards. …’
“In October 2008, the Kokopelli Deli in Terminal 3 was cited after an employee ‘washed his hands then brushed his teeth with his fingers then went to work with food.’ In Terminal 4 at Flo’s Shanghai Cafe, employees were caught ‘cutting chicken with bare hand,’ ‘portioning peanuts onto chicken bare handed.’”
If you’re waiting on an e-mail reply from me on anything in particular, you may be waiting awhile longer. And while my usual e-mail style is terse, typing one-handed means the responses will be terserer. It’s nothing personal, just a baby thing. Really. It’s not you, it’s me. Really.
Surprise: Research finds Canadians consumed fewer deli-meats after listeria killed 20
This is why I stopped being interested in survey research, oh, about 15 years ago.
The University of Guelph today announced that a new survey had found a majority of Canadians have changed their buying and consumption behaviour following the recall associated with listeria in ready-to-eat meats. If people said so, it must be true.
.jpg)
"The listeriosis outbreak was not only associated with the death of 20 people and the illness of many others, but it also contributed to economic loss in the food industry," said Prof. John Cranfield of the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Uh, yup.
"Before the food recall, consumers did not consider the potential risks of ready-to-eat meats to be significant," Cranfield said.
That’s because no one, even listeria guru Michael McCain, said anything about the risks.
So, with a lot of death, illness and massive media coverage, consumers became more aware.
The press release also says, in something that is tragically not interesting, that,
“Interestingly, although overall confidence in food safety in Canada remains high, consumers' trust in food-chain stakeholders to protect them from listeria is only moderate, the researchers found. Farmers were judged to have the greatest ability to ensure the safety of food, whereas restaurants, grocery stores and the food-service sector were deemed to have the least ability.”
What farmers have to do with listeria in deli-meats is beyond me; maybe a university puckering a little too tightly to a constituency?
The press release gushes that,
“The survey is the second to be produced as part of the Guelph Food Panel, the first large-scale panel of consumers dedicated to food research. Developed by Henson, Cranfield and post-doctoral researcher Oliver Masakure, it allows researchers to accurately track changes in Canadians' eating habits and measure consumer responses to issues such as food scares.”
20 dead isn’t a food scare. It’s a food screw-up.
Canadian Feds fretted over listeria criticism
Canadian Press has concluded that, based on copies of 53 handwritten pages obtained under the Access to Information Act, government officials and political aides were deeply concerned about critical media coverage at the height of the Canadian listeriosis crisis beginning Aug. 12, 2008.
(1).jpg)
CP reports that about 30 scientists, senior bureaucrats and political staff usually took part in the daily conference calls, which typically began at 9 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends.
One note implies officials were as concerned about communications as they were about managing a public health scare that has so far claimed 20 lives.
"What is the process for alerting the public to cover off (the) 'it took too long' angle?" it says.
You don’t need 30 people on a conference call to figure out the angle. Have someone – anyone – provide a detailed accounting of who knew what when. Like, these conference calls may have started Aug. 12, 2008, but the first public notification was at 3 a.m. Aug, 17, 2008, with the weasel words,
“There have been no confirmed illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.”
There were lots of sick people by then.
The real question, which no one has answered, is, When does sufficient evidence exist to warn the public? What are the existing protocols? Does epidemiology matter? But note the person cited in the story was more concerned with “the process for alerting the public to cover off (the) ‘it took too long angle?”
Michael McCain also continues his insistence that listeria is everywhere and the company did everything possible. If listeria’s everywhere, why didn’t you warn those vulnerable old people and pregnant women before the outbreak? And where’s the listeria testing data?
Now, the 30 of you and your salaries, discuss and analyze. Watch the tasteless jokes, though. They tend to leak out.
.jpg)
4 dead, 90 sick from listeria in brie in Chile
Chilean officials are ordering a recall of a brie cheese suspected of causing a listeriosis bacteria outbreak that has killed four people.
The health ministry says investigators are trying to determine if Brie Lescure cheese made by the Chilean-French Chevrita company is responsible for an outbreak of the disease that also has sickened about 90 people.
Chevrita manager Denis Lebret said Tuesday the company is conducting its own investigation and he says the recall is "just a precaution."
He said the brie "is made with pasteurized milk and the bacteria does not resist pasteurization."
Jail sucks, so does the listeria food
It’s been 27 years since I served time in an Ontario correctional institution where I got all corrected and rehabilitated.
I never saw a health inspector. But apparently they do check out the jail food. Good thing too. The Milton, Ontario, food production facility – the ‘Hurst --provides 9,000 meals per day to approximately 4,500 inmates at seven Ontario correctional facilities. And listeria was found last week.
Dr. David Williams, Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health, is alerting individuals who were incarcerated in seven provincial correctional institutions between November 13 and 16, 2008 of a possible exposure to Listeria monocytogenes.
On November 21, 2008, the operator of a correctional services food production facility in Milton informed the Halton Region Health Department that food and environmental samples taken during routine surveillance at the facility had tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.
The tests relate to samples taken from food that may have been consumed between November 13 and November 16, 2008.
As a result of the positive tests, the Halton Region Health Department issued an order to the operator, Eurest Dining Services, to cease production and distribution of food from the facility and to immediately prepare and implement a plan to sanitize the plant and equipment.
There are no reported cases of listeriosis.
CFIA says listeria silence was a mistake
During the waning days of the Canadian listeria outbreak, a Canadian academic-type sent me a love letter, which said,
.jpg)
“I did hear awkward remarks about your organisation from several microbiologists I know. Your comments in CB confirmed what I heard. I heard other comments you made recently on the listeria outbreak, appalling, very poor comments. Please refrain making further comments, at least publicly. You are hurting our profession.”
I guess if your profession is kissing the ass of industry and the federal government while people die and pregnant women risk miscarriage, then yes, I’ve been harming your profession.
But now, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has taken to echoing the concerns – the “very poor comments” – that I have stated since the beginning of the listeria outbreak in Aug. 2008.
Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star wrote on Wednesday that,
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency could have done a far better job communicating with the public during this summer's listeria outbreak, a top official at the federal agency concedes.
"There's been a lot of hard questions asked ... in terms of how we can get information to the public in as timely a way as possible," said Dr. Brian Evans, CFIA executive vice-president and chief veterinary officer of Canada. "I accept the criticism that there is a need for us to reflect and to do a much better job of informing (Canadians)."
.jpg)
Oh Brain Evans, where were you in August?
As I’ve written many times before, if Canadian cattle or chickens get sick, the public is told all about it.
If Canadian people get sick, not so much.
Cribb also writes that one CFIA initiative that will help in that regard is a newly formed advisory panel comprised of four prominent food safety experts. The panel will consult with the CFIA on best practices and possible changes to existing protocols.
That may help with listeria testing protocols but I can’t see how it will help with communications; especially since CFIA hasn’t announced who is on this advisory panel and what it is they will do. If you really want to do better, CFIA, don’t talk about it, do it. Oh, and clearly articulate your policy on when to go public about foodborne illness outbreaks. And warning labels.
My friend, Harshavardhan Thippareddi, a listeria expert and associate professor of food science at the University of Nebraska, was also quoted in the Star story, saying,
"While food safety should be the responsibility of individual companies, the regulatory agencies have the responsibility to verify that the food safety of the products produced is assured. Thus, the regulatory agency can, and I believe should, require companies to share any and all data that pertains to any safety issue, in this case listeria testing results."
.jpg)
Amen.
Oh, and to the author of the love scribble, awkward doesn’t begin to describe things. Amy and Ben and others around me are saints. But at least I am willing to state my evidence-based opinion publicly, with my name attached.
Michael McCain whines some more
Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, whose products killed at least 20 people, didn’t like the coverage in the Toronto Star over the weekend – those weekends when McCain is, according to e-mails, usually at his Georgian Bay cottage.
.jpg)
So Mr. McCain wrote a letter to the Toronto Star that was published this morning. He says,
“Within hours of being notified by the CFIA of a positive test for listeria monocytogenes (sic – should be Listeria), products were recalled by way of a news release issued to alert consumers.”
As I’ve said before, holding yourself and your company to the CFIA standard is really going for the lowest common denominator. Many people were already dead and dying. CFIA may have a standard – and it’s impossible to know because CFIA won’t come clean on when evidence is sufficient to go public – of issuing a recall once a positive is found, As Globe and Mail reporter Andre Picard wrote on Sept. 11, 2008,
“People started dying in June, and it took until mid-August to trace the problem to the plant. On Aug. 13, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was in the plant looking for the source of listeria monocytogenes, Maple Leaf started warning distributors to stop shipping some meats. But nobody told the public to stop eating them.”
And once again, Mr. McCain you say that listeria is everywhere.
“All food plants and supermarkets have some amount of listeria.”
If that is so, then why don’t your products have warning labels saying, “Listeria is everywhere, don’t feed my deli meats to pregnant women and old people. They may die.”
My pregnant wife is married to someone who has a PhD in food science. So she never ate McCain’s contaminated meat. I know a few other PhDs in food science who have told me the same thing. But shouldn’t other people have access to the same information? After all, listeria is everywhere. McCain, what would you advise a pregnant daughter or daughter-in-law, now that you’ve “learned more in the past three weeks about (food safety) than I have ever learned before in my lifetime.”
McCain concludes his letter to the Star by saying,
“Referencing the company as ‘slow to respond’ is absurd. I am disappointed with the absence of frequently communicated facts from both the CFIA and Maple Leaf in the story.”
Dude, you must pay over $100K for your communications thingies. Shouldn’t they at least be able to write a grammatically correct sentence? Who or what are these “frequently communicated facts?”
Then work on something that is actually compelling.
.jpg)
What Maple Leaf's Michael McCain was thinking the past two months
Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star continues his excellent reporting on the Maple Leaf Foods listeria outbreak in Canada that has killed at least 20, and based on e-mails from the company’s CEO and president, Michael McCain (right, exactly as shown), I’m struck that the head of a $5 billion a year company that sells food is so whiney about food safety.
McCain blames the media for making a big deal out of the story, blames lawyers for being ambulance chasers, and says that,
"Eradicating listeria from a plant is akin to eradicating the flu from the office -- we have best practice systems in place to reduce it to the absolute lowest level because it's our reputation at stake, but eradication is just not possible."
So shouldn’t you warn those who are most vulnerable? Like pregnant women and old people?
The entire story is a good read, and it’s based on internal memos that McCain sent to thousands of staff (and which were regularly forwarded to me throughout the outbreak) but the most damning excerpt is this:
"I, for one, can say I've learned more in the past three weeks about (food safety) than I have ever learned before in my lifetime."
A company selling over $5 billion a year and bragging about it's culture of food safety should be doing better than on-the-job training.
Contaminated wieners in Georgia
Huh huh huhhuh. He said wieners.
Contaminated wieners.
Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin announced today that Georgia Department of Agriculture food scientists have found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Zeigler Wieners.
Which is why you shouldn’t let little kids or pregnant women eat raw wieners.
Maple Leaf invents food safety
I blogged earlier today that any food company doing over $5 billion a year in sales should already have a food safety dude and, after at least 20 deaths, really shouldn’t be bragging.
.jpg)
It gets worse.
Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain said yesterday that by appointing a chief food safety officer,
"I think we're the first in Canada and ... possibly in North America to have that role inside a major food company.”
Wow.
Jack-in-the-Box appointed a food safety officer after the 1993 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Odwalla acted like it invented flash pasteurization after the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in cider in 1996. I could go on. Michael McCain, your knowledge of food safety sucks.
And rather than pontificating, at some point Mr. McCain will provide a full accounting of:
• who knew what when;
• warn pregnant women and others at risk from listeria in deli meats; and,
• make your listeria data public.
Maple Leaf hires food safety chief - shouldn't they have had one already?
There’s an old saying about reformed smokers or drinkers or whatever … they’re the worst critics.
And they want everyone to share their religion.
Natural Selection Foods got food safety religion after the 2006 E. coli O157:H7 in spinach outbreak. Bill Marler recently said upon settling some lawsuits, “Special mention to Natural Selection Foods for its leadership role in preventing leafy green bacterial outbreaks. All companies should strive for its standards.”
I disagree. There were 29 outbreaks on leafy greens before the 2006 spinach outbreak. Why didn’t Natural Selection pay attention before they got caught?
It’s an old tale. Now, after 20 confirmed deaths, and probably dozens more, Maple Leaf Foods is proclaiming they’ve hired a food safety dude.
I thought food safety would be a priority if a $5 billion company was selling food.
But I’m hopelessly naïve. Ask old girlfriends -- or my wife.
Randy Huffman, formerly of the American Meat Institute, is going to be chief food safety dude for Maple Leaf Foods. Once he settles into his new post in Jan., maybe he can foster the food safety culture his boss, Michael McCain, claims to already have. And maybe he can address some outstanding issues, ones I wrote about back in Aug. 2008 when the enormity of the listeria outbreak in Canada was just emerging:
• who knew what when;
• warn pregnant women and others at risk from listeria in deli meats; and,
• make your listeria data public.
Here's Randy, the meat science guy, on video.
The ham you can eat in a bathroom: Jon Hamm's John Ham
Who is that Hamm dude? He hosted Saturday Night Live, on Saturday, and his show, Mad Men, wrapped up Sunday night.
Included was a sketch for the fast-paced lifestyle, the one of eating on the run. Or with the runs. Jon's ham is on a roll in the bathroom across from the toilet paper. Sounds like listeria; or a new market for Maple Leaf Foods Inc., which posted a third-quarter loss this morning of $12.9 million. Order now, and receive a free mustard soap. And remember, "if it feels like a slice of ham, don't wipe your ass with it."
The human face of foodborne illness - Maple Leaf listeria edition
Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star writes this morning that,
“In the end, Frances Clark's unfocused gaze never moved as she desperately gasped for air.
“The listeria-tainted meat served to her in a Belleville-area hospital and again in a nursing home this summer was ravaging her 89-year-old body. She began losing breath altogether. Seizures came. And then, on Aug. 25, days after she allegedly ate Maple Leaf cold cuts from a Toronto plant, she died.
.jpg)
“Details of Clark's death and the deaths of two others are documented in affidavits filed in court this week as part of a planned class-action lawsuit against the food giant in six provinces, including Ontario. The graphic accounts written by family members of the deceased describe gradual deterioration from flu-like symptoms to fading consciousness and struggles for air.” …
"It was the most disturbing sight," recalls Clark's daughter, Karen, who was at her bedside. "She was ... gasping, like a fish out of water ... Maple Leaf has to understand this is not acceptable. It hurts real families." …
"A second affidavit focuses on the case of Jeaninne Jacques, 69, who died July 28 after eating Maple Leaf ham. Her daughter, Linda Gosselin, said blood test results confirmed listeriosis was the cause of death. Tests filed in court confirm this.
"It is frustrating to think my mother passed away due to the negligence of Maple Leaf. ... I believe (Maple Leaf) should be held accountable and their behaviour should change so that no one will suffer like this again."
Maple Leaf was given the OK to start selling deli meats from its Toronto plant yesterday.
A Maple Leaf hasn't been near the Stanley Cup in 40 years; you're safe from listeria
Spirits were high Saturday night as the Toronto Maple Leafs opened their at-home hockey season night to the rhythms of the Smashing Pumpkins.
.jpg)
Fresh off an unexpected victory against defending Stanley Cup champs, the Detroit Red Wings, on Thursday, and with a bad Def Leopard live performance following the game, things were looking up for the Leafs.
The Leafs lost horribly to Montreal on Saturday night and reality set in.
Companies, like hockey teams, can also show flashes of brilliance, only to revert to old ways.
Michael McCain, president and CEO of Toronto-based Maple Leaf Foods, was widely praised for his compassionate and heartfelt response to the deaths of now 20 people from Maple Leaf cold-cuts.
But now Mr. McCain has taken to lecturing Canadians on the realities – or at least Mr. McCain’s realities – of the inevitability of listeria in everything, reminding me of the Tragically Hip song that goes, “I thought you beat the death of inevitability to death just a little bit. …
“We don’t’ go to hell, the memories of us do.”
McCain is using the increased media spotlight not to call for increased warnings to vulnerable populations, like the 20 who died, and pregnant woman (because, after all, listeria is everywhere) but to say how unfair it is that McCain’s Maple Leaf Foods has to compete with small plants.
"Right now, we have two-tier system. It is clear to me and, I think, most scientists would agree with this, that the provincial standards are not at the same level as the federal standards. … Right now, saying it's acceptable for Canadian consumers to have one standard that applies to companies like Maple Leaf and another standard that is significantly below that for many, many others who are provincially inspected is not right for consumers. …
"That's actually the travesty. If they were aware and they made a conscious choice that's acceptable to them, everybody is free to make a good choice. But I think the travesty here is they're probably not even aware of different standards out there."
OK, Mr. McCain, give consumers the choice and, as Carl says, stop whining. Market food safety. Advertize your allegedly superior food safety protocols. Put it on the label. And warn those populations who are particularly vulnerable – and missing from your latest missives.
Below is a video clip from the Canadian band and hockey fanatics, The Tragically Hip, with some apt lyrics:
it's a monumental big screen kiss
it's so deep it's meaningless
Oh, and the joke making the rounds in Canada?
“Q & A's from Health Canada
“ Q: The Stanley Cup was recently on tour in my town, and I kissed it. Do I have to worry about being infected by listeria?
“A: You are safe. The Stanley Cup has not been in contact with any Maple Leaf in over 40 years.”
Maple Leaf says listeria happens; Carl says, stop whining
Michael McCain, president of Maple Leaf Foods, told a press conference yesterday that continuing to find listeria in the plant responsible for producing luncheon meats that have killed 26 and sickened 63 in Canada was no biggie.
“To suggest a shock at a positive environmental test is at best misguided and at worst fear mongering.”
As Toronto’s Globe and Mail reported this morning,
When the company's deli meats were first linked to an outbreak of the food-borne disease known as listeriosis last August, it was a humble Mr. McCain who stood before television cameras and reporters and apologized.
Yesterday, by contrast, he defiantly reproached those who have criticized Canada's food-safety watchdog, including the media, accusing them of undermining the public's confidence in the system and of potentially jeopardizing thousands of jobs.
“There's been a lot of criticism of the [Canadian Food Inspection Agency] in recent weeks,” he said. “While there's likely lots of blame to go around, I personally see no balance in the reporting.” …
He said it is unrealistic for the public to have zero tolerance for the bacteria because it is everywhere in the environment.
“Frankly, if that was the tolerance level of Canadians, then Canadians would starve. They wouldn't eat.”
Mr. McCain, this isn’t gotcha journalism and you’re not Sarah Palin. Yes, you have finally released some test results -- four out of 3,850 product samples and one environmental sample out of 671 tested positive for listeria in product that was never released to the public – but you refuse to release results prior to public notification of the outbreak.
Yes, this is the most scrutinized plant in North America. Apparently more inspectors, even with listeria goggles, won’t make the listeria go away. The political opportunism being practiced by the inspector’s union and various parties falling over themselves to promise the hiring of more inspectors in the lead-up to Canada’s federal election on Tuesday is breathtakingly offensive to the sick and dead – I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth.
.jpg)
And yes, the risk is small -- Mansel Griffiths, an adviser to Maple Leaf, said the tiny fraction of products that tested positive, 0.1 per cent, was in the range that would be found in deli meats for sale in Canada, ranging from 0.1 to .03 per cent – but I’m sure glad you’re not advising pregnant women, like my wife, who are 20 times more susceptible to infection with listeria – a bug that has a 20-30 per cent kill rate.
Now that Mr. McCain is a listeria expert, telling Canadians to get over it, listeria happens, I wonder why he never issued such a warning about the risk of listeria in his products before 26 were killed. Would he serve cold cuts to the elderly in nursing homes where many of the 20 confirmed deaths occurred? What would he recommend to one of his pregnant family members? That listeria happens?
In response to the initial coverage of Mr. McCain’s statements yesterday, Carl, a former USDA guru e-mailed me, stating,
“Ummm, maybe someone ought to point McCain to Nebraska's series of webinars. It'll take more than the webinars but it could be a start. Eliminating listeriae in plants has been done but it takes effort and diligence not just whining.”
Here’s the info for the latest listeria webinar from Nebraska.
Free Web Seminars on Controlling Listeria monocytogenes on Ready-to-Eat Meat and Poultry Products and in the RTE Processing Environment
The Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen and is most often transmitted through ready-to-eat (RTE) foods products contaminated with this pathogen. People at most risk for illness and infection due to this pathogen are young, elderly and those will weakened immune systems such as the immuno-compromised.
The USDA-FSIS requires the Ready-to-Eat (RTE) meat and poultry processors to control Listeria monocytogenes in the environment and on their products. The web-seminar is designed to help small and very small RTE meat and poultry businesses to address Listeria in their RTE environment and ways to reduce the Listeria risk in their products. The web-seminar is designed to update you and provide you an opportunity to ask questions and get answers from the experts.
The University of Nebraska along with its collaborating partners, Colorado State University, Cornell University, Kansas State University and The Ohio State University is conducting a series of free web seminars to inform and educate the RTE meat and poultry processors on various aspects of controlling the organism in the RTE processing environment and on the product. This web seminar series is funded through a grant from the National Integrated Food Safety Initiative (Special Emphasis Grant No. 2005-511110-03278) of the CSREES, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The next session is scheduled for Oct 15, 2008 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (CST). Those interested can participate in these free web seminars by logging in at the following website:
http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/nebraska/
To receive notifications and presentation materials ahead of the web seminar, please register by sending an e-mail to Nina Murray at nmurray2@unl.edu with your name and e-mail.
Topic: L. monocytogenes Control Strategies: Quality Effects on RTE Meat Products Speaker: Dr. Dennis Burson, University of Nebraska
Dr. Dennis Burson is a Professor of meat science in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He also serves as the Extension meat specialist for the state of Nebraska and assists the meat, poultry and egg industry with outreach activities. He received his B.S. degree from University of Nebraska and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Kansas State University. His outreach focus is on improving quality, consistency and value of market animals, value addition and processing of meat products and food safety for meat and poultry processors. Dr. Burson has conducted numerous meat processing, harvesting and quality workshops in addition to food safety workshops including HACCP for the meat and poultry industry over the years and still is very active in the food safety outreach programs. He coordinates the four state consortium of Universities (UNL, KSU, SDSU, and Missouri) and holds several HACCP workshops within each of the states every year. He has taught several courses, including animal and carcass evaluation, principles of meat evaluation, grading and judging and advanced meat grading and evaluation. Dr. Burson is active in several professional organizations, including American Meat Science Association, Institute of Food Technologists and International Association for Food Protection among others.
Topic: Tracking Listeria in the RTE Meat and Poultry Processing Environment: DNA Based Methods Speaker: Dr. Kendra Nightingale, Colorado State University
Kendra Nightingale is originally from a small farming community in western Kansas. Kendra received a B.S. degree in Agriculture from Kansas State University, where she participated in the undergraduate honors program. Kendra also holds a M.S. degree from Kansas State University in Food Science, where her research evaluated the use of lactoferrin, a milk-derived protein, to decontaminate and extend the shelf-life of beef products. Kendra Nightingale completed her Ph.D. at Cornell University in Food Science with a concentration in Food Microbiology and minors in Epidemiology and Microbiology. Her Ph.D. work probed the molecular epidemiology, ecology, and evolution of the human foodborne and animal pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Kendra also completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University. Kendra joined the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University as an Assistant Professor in 2006.
Listeria rocks
Italian hard rockers Listeria have issued the following update:
.jpg)
"After two years of silence and hard work Italian metal band, Listeria is still alive and kickin' and it's proud to tell all its fans that the writing of the new amazing album is finally done!!! During winter '08/'09 the band will start the recording sessions of the second release, following Full Of Fire, published worldwide through Lion Music in 2005. But we have other news for you out there. Auditions for a new drummer are open. For further information please contact the band at: info@listeriaband.com.”
I’ve got nothing else. Really. But I use their album cover (right), so thought it only fair to use my social networks to help Listeria find a new drummer.
More of the same from Maple Leaf, CFIA
Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain said last night that “consistent with normal findings and practices” listeria continues to be found at the same facility that produced cold-cuts linked to at least 20 deaths and 50 illnesses in Canada.
“Listeriosis is an exceptionally rare illness,” he said, “but we are taking every precaution possible.”
(1).jpg)
I’m sure the illness didn’t feel exceptionally rare to the sick and the dead.
Mr. McCain also reiterated that,
“Listeria exists in all food plants, all supermarkets and presumably in all kitchens,”
which is exactly why my pregnant wife and Ben’s pregnant wife didn’t go near Maple Leaf or any other cold cuts during their pregnancies. So I’m sure Mr. McCain will put as much energy and resources into advising vulnerable populations to stay away from Maple Leaf cold-cuts and other refrigerated ready-to-eat foods as he is into re-opening the Toronto plant.
And if Maple Leaf is now “behaving in the most conservative way possible,” what were they doing before the listeria outbreak became public knowledge on Aug. 20, 2008?
Confidential data obtained by the Toronto Star and CBC and reported last night revealed that two-thirds of Maple Leaf meat samples collected from Toronto hospitals and nursing homes tested positive for a virulent strain of listeria just before the country’s largest food recall.
The test results show a dramatically high percentage of bacteria-laced ham, corned beef, turkey, and roast beef was being served to hundreds of vulnerable hospital patients and seniors. Experts say it’s more contamination than they have seen and further evidence of a health risk that should have reached the public’s attention sooner.
“There shouldn’t be any positives,” says Rick Holley, a food safety expert at the University of Manitoba. “The reality is if you did a survey in the market, you might find one or two at most out of this sample that are positive ... And it is a particularly virulent strain of listeria. It’s one of the bad ones.” …
“I’d never seen anything like this,” said Dr. Vinita Dubey, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health. “The fact that so many came back positive shows how contaminated the source was.”
(2).gif)
So given the high level of contamination, what did the Canadian Food Inspection Agency do? Insist on more testing, because epidemiology is not enough to protect the health of Canadians.
In a conference call with members of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Aug. 14, Toronto officials told the agency they had enough evidence to make a connection and pressed the CFIA to warn the public about Maple Leaf products.
CFIA officials, however, said they needed to wait for one more set of test results from unopened meat packages.
While the CFIA had identified listeria bacteria at the Maple Leaf Foods meat processing plant in Toronto and even begun an investigation of the company by that time, the federal agency said it wanted definitive test results to see whether it was the same strain as the one responsible for the outbreak.
The CFIA declined a request for an interview with CBC News. The agency maintained that it requires hard scientific proof before it can recall food or issue warnings to the public.
Toronto Public Health said it had gathered plenty of evidence during July and August that linked Maple Leaf meat products to the outbreak, including:
* two deaths linked to listeriosis
* more cases being reported
* meat samples from sandwiches tested positive
* samples from opened meat packages were taken
During a 2005 outbreak of salmonella found in bean sprouts in Kingston, Ont., regional health officials didn't wait for definitive proof to issue their own recall.
"I think it's a less desirable approach, from the point of view of the people we serve, to say, 'We'll have to wait and have confirmation before we can intervene,'" said Dr. Ian Gemmill, the medical officer of health for the Kingston Area Health Unit.
The locals sound increasingly frustrated with CFIA. Until there is a clear policy on when to go public, expect more failures and frustration in the future.
Asked for the listeria test results leading up to the outbreak, the Maple Leaf spokesthingy said last week that, in the spirit of open and transparent co-operation and a genuine desire to improve the safety of refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods, the company would not release them publicly.
Listeria basics still missing in Canada
"Refusing to make listeria test results public, and saying Maple Leaf is doing what CFIA expects of the company, leaves Canadians blindly trusting the two groups under whose watch 20 people died. It's not particularly reassuring.”
That’s what I said in the Toronto Star this morning in response to Robert Cribb’s story yesterday that four months before the Maple Leaf outbreak started claiming lives, Canada's food safety agency quietly dropped its rule requiring meat-processing companies to alert the agency about listeria-tainted meat.
.jpg)
Neither Maple Leaf nor the safety agency will release to the public the specifics of the listeria outbreak at the plant, so it is not possible to determine how the reporting rule would have affected the case.
One Toronto inspector said there had been a "trend" in positive listeria tests leading up to the outbreak that was never reported by the plant to federal inspectors. The inspector, and three others across the country, spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear disciplinary action if they spoke publicly. "There's something wrong, that an inspector isn't aware of a trend in their own plant," the inspector said.
That does not mean more inspectors. As Karen Selick, a lawyer in Belleville, Ont., wrote in the National Post yesterday, the recent listeriosis outbreak has produced a predictable chorus of accusations from big-government fans attempting to pin the blame on the alleged deregulation of Canada’s food safety system
There was a full-time government inspector on site in every Maple Leaf plant, but the listeriosis outbreak happened anyhow. Would additional government inspectors have prevented the problem? Probably not.
Back to the Toronto Star, where Maple Leaf spokesperson Linda Smith said her company makes all of its paperwork and testing available to inspectors but doesn't alert them to positive test results.
"As per the regulations, there is no requirement to inform the CFIA about any listeria test result," she said. "The protocol Maple Leaf had in place was if they found a positive, they would sanitize the area and then you'd need to find three negatives in a row to leave that area alone. In (the Maple Leaf plant from which the outbreak was traced), there were occasional positives. ... They would sanitize and test three subsequent times and in all of those cases, they did not find another positive in that area."
During the outbreak, Maple Leaf president Michael McCain said the company tests the Toronto plant's surfaces 3,000 times a year.
"Positive results for listeria inside a food plant are common," he told reporters at the time, adding that "there was nothing out of the norm" leading up to the outbreak.
Asked for the listeria test results leading up to the outbreak, Smith said last week the company would not release them publicly.
Quebec cheese linked to two deaths, one miscarriage, 120 illnesses -- gets government bailout
I was a fan of Quebec agriculture minister Laurent Lessard.
After two separate outbreaks -- one listeria, one salmonella – in Quebec-made cheese that killed two, caused one miscarriage, sickened six other pregnant women and their newborn babies, and sickened a total of about 120 people, Lessard ordered a crackdown.
When asked about compensation for cheese retailers who had to discard potentially contaminated product, Lessard said on Sept. 17,
"The province is not there to compensate. We aren't an insurance company."
Retailers have a responsibility to market safe products, and if there's a risk associated to what they're selling they have to absorb the losses, he said.
But being astute about Quebec politics and the role of dairy producers, Lessard didn't rule out possible compensation for cheese producers, even though provincial food inspectors found traces listeria in 16 different establishments, either on cheese or processing equipment.
Three weeks later, and it appears that politics has caught up with the public health overtures of Monsieur Lessard as he announced Friday that Quebec's small cheese producers and retailers will receive a three-year, $8.4-million provincial aid package, along with $11.3-million in interest-free loans.
"I want to reassure Quebec consumers. All of Quebec's cheese producers are presently offering safe and secure products.”
Approximately half of the aid package will be spent on improving quality control. Government inspections will be conducted monthly, the minister said, and retailers will receive guidelines on improving the handling of cheeses.
Producers and retailers reported a significant drop in sales of Quebec cheeses, which last year alone totaled $2.6-billion.
Where’s the compensation for the sick people? Where’s the effort to accurately present the risks of soft cheeses (oh, and deli meats) to certain populations, like pregnant women and the elderly.
I’m not such a fan anymore.
More listeria revelations: CFIA waited (at least) 5 days to issue advisory, policy on going public seems to suck
Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported Saturday that health officials in Ontario ordered hospitals and nursing homes to stop serving Maple Leaf meats five days before the public was told about a deadly source of food poisoning that has so far claimed 19 lives and left another 60 people seriously ill across Canada.
.jpg)
The CFIA launched its investigation on Aug. 6, after officials at the Ontario Ministry of Health informed it that there was an outbreak of listeriosis in the province. Many local health officials were already grappling with a spike in listeriosis cases, but they did not become aware that the outbreak spanned several provinces until July 30, when they received a directive from the ministry, telling them to urgently report any new cases.
On Aug. 14, health officials in Ontario learned during a telephone conference call with the CFIA that the agency had some test results revealing that Maple Leaf deli meats contained the foodborne bacteria known as Listeria monocytogenes.
The CFIA waited until it had the DNA fingerprint evidence establishing a definitive link before it went public – on Aug. 19, 2008.
CFIA spokesman Garfield Balsom said,
“We had lab results indicating that there was positive listeria in a product and we would issue our normal recall based on that.”
So epidemiology doesn’t count? If CFIA really does not issue public advisories unless it has a positive result, that would explain the low number outbreaks linked to fresh fruits in vegetables in Canada. Who knows how many sick people there are, and how many illnesses and deaths could have been prevented in the current listeriosis outbreak.
A positive listeria sample would have triggered an immediate recall in the U.S. So what is the CFIA policy on going public – on issuing advisories that specific foods may pose an imminent danger to the health of Canadians. CFIA won’t say what their policy is, at least not publicly, but a policy that maligns epidemiology and relies excessively on positive test results – especially when those samples appear to be delivered by stagecoach – is restrictive and reckless.
As past of that accountability, I told the Toronto Star on Thursday that Canada does not need an inquiry and does not need more inspectors, rather,
"People need to do their jobs. The CFIA is accountable to Parliament through the minister of agriculture, so either the minister, or the Prime Minister's Office, should call the head of CFIA on the carpet and say, `You've had this internal report since 2005. Issue some clear guidelines on how to communicate during an outbreak of food-borne illness. Give clear instructions to inspectors and the industry on what is expected to ensure a safe food supply ... If you can't do that, I will find someone else who can – and not some political appointment, someone with a food safety background who will do what is necessary to protect the safety of the Canadian food supply and bolster the Canadian brand in international circles.'"
Such straight talk, especially when it comes to informing the public about health risks, is largely missing in Canada, experts agree.
So while the politicians and unionists pontificate, a columnist at the University of Calgary student paper got the most rightest:
"Canadians have entrusted one single agency, the CFIA, to protect the entire Canadian food supply-- we have placed all food security in one basket.
"If the CFIA did not exist, perhaps Canadians would be better off. … The current food inspection system has failed Canadians. Maybe it is time for a change."
As an aside, a columnist with the Ottawa Citizen who fancies himself as some sort of risk guru wrote Saturday that,
“Another clue lies in the number of listeriosis deaths in past years. According to Statistics Canada, there were five in 2000. In 2001, four. In 2002, seven. In 2003, three. In 2004, one. (Data for subsequent years were unavailable.) …
“The Globe also noted the Canadian regulatory standard is weaker than that of the United States, which allows no listeria content at all in ready-to-eat foods. But the Globe did not report that, according to the Centers for Disease Control, roughly 2,500 Americans become seriously ill with listeriosis each year and 500 die.
“Thus the listeriosis fatality rate is far smaller in Canada than the U.S. That, too, does not suggest a crisis.”
The columnist is comparing actual listeria cases in Canada with estimated cases in the U.S. And why no alarm that the most recent numbers in Canada are from 2004?
Listeria has been my worst nightmare for the past 9 months
I'm a self-described food safety nerd. I don't hide from this obsession, I embrace it. But my fixation on everything food safety has led to much stress lately -- for the past 9 months my food safety spidey-sense has been heightened more than normal as Dani and I have been expecting a baby.
And he finally arrived last week.
Our little dude, Jack Neil Chapman, showed up Friday morning at 4:11am (Yes, the Neil part is named after the greatest Canadian singer/songwriter, Neil Young -- I'll fight anyone who disagrees, Ari Gold style, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGVoLsDS3t8&e)
Throughout Dani's pregnancy I became the food police in our house -- no soft cheeses or cold deli meats made it to Dani's plate, most didn't even make it in the house. Everything (and I mean everything) has been temped during cooking. I read pretty well every paper I could on listeria, and Doug and I discussed the merits of broad food surveys and listeria growth in blue-veined cheese. It was a bit ridiculous, but I hear that first time parents sometimes can be obsessive.
During the recent Canadian listeria outbreaks I selfishly felt vindicated for keeping the products out of our house -- our view was that no matter what type of food safety system food processors had, we weren't taking the risk. Maple Leaf is a huge company that can afford lots of food safety controls, spoke about their commitment to food safety, and even used the food safety culture term Doug and I are so fond of. But 18 people have so far died from listeria in their products.
When I held Jack for the first time, about 30 seconds after he was born, I first thought "Wow, you're tiny and light, and you don't smell as manky as I had thought you would" and soon after I thought about the parents, people just like us, who have been recently affected by listeria. The victims include at least one miscarriage and six babies born prematurely in Quebec resulting from the consumption of soft cheeses. A 6-week old Manitoba infant born with a listeria, not linked to either Maple Leaf or Quebec soft cheeses outbreak, also died last week. Those are the ones we know about.
And then I realized that, although I thought I did a great job managing risks in our house, I and the rest of the food safety world have probably failed many out there who haven't reduced risks. Not the individuals who made the choice to eat risky foods, but the parents who have never heard about listeria, the ones who ate risky foods without knowing that listeria is 20 times more likely to infect pregnant women or that listeria infections during preganancy are likely to cause miscarriages or stillbirth. Who knows what effect our risk-reduction practices had on Dani's pregnancy. Maybe things would have been fine without being so strict, but we weren't interested in taking the chance.
I'm all about informed decisions around risk. I even think there is a place for raw milk consumption for adults. But we had the info to make the decisions. Info that came from a variety of places (for us it was primary resources, outbreak reports and review papers). Other parents rely on food safety professionals, like the health authorities, for info.
Last weekend was all about Jack, and I didn't get back into reading FSNet until yesterday morning (I'm getting quite good at holding him and reading emails at the same time) and I came across Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones’ advice concerning listeria, including the below:
*Wash your hands. This will help avoid many kinds of infections. Wash your hands in warm soapy water before preparing food, afterwards, and again before eating.
*Read labels and follow cooking and storage instructions for all foods. Make sure to check the “best before” date.
*Freeze or consume leftovers within four days of cooking. Always reheat leftovers until steaming hot before eating.
*Keep refrigerators clean and at a temperature below 4 C, or 40 F. Listeria can grow in the fridge, but the colder it is, the slower it grows. Install a thermometer in your fridge to be sure.
Those tips apply to all of us, all the time, and not just during an outbreak.
There are so many holes in his list of advice, many have nothing to do with listeria, and I don't think there is evidence that supports many of his statements. Following the list of consumer blames, Butler-Jones did get into listeria with feel-good language: "For seniors, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems, or for those serving or caring for anyone in these groups, some extra precautions are very important as [various] foods pose some risk." He ended his advice with "these steps form a simple approach to food safety."
The most important message missing from his list was: Don't eat this stuff unless you are cool with the risks.
I sent an email to Doug (the subject line was "what a f*ing joke"), saying where was Dr. Butler-Jones when the outbreak was announced a month ago. Did it really take a month for his staff to wake up and get some info out there? A question echoed in the upcoming Canadian Medical Association Journal which says that the Public Health Agency of Canada should be the primary source of information for the public during a crisis and that Canada's chief public health officer has not been the lead voice to inform the public.
So I guess my preachy message is along the lines of don't eat poop (especially baby poop, though Jack's hasn't started to smell yet).We need to do a better job of creating a dialogue around food safety risks with specific target audiences -- especially those at higher risk for foodborne illnesses. And though the bureaucrats talk a lot, they need to be the real leaders in information -- and forget about the fuzzy language that will make the minister happy. Tell people to stay away from the risky stuff.
Canadian food safety bureaucrats still aren't that into you
If Canadian cattle or chickens get sick, the public is told all about it.
If Canadian people get sick, not so much.
.gif)
That’s what I wrote in Dec. 2006 in a piece called, Sorry, bureaucrats just aren’t that into you.
I’ve said the same thing for the past month as the listeria in Canadian cold-cuts outbreak became public. The latest figures show at least 18 dead and 60 confirmed or suspected ill.
The several-week delay in telling Canadians about listeria in Maple Leaf cold-cuts, coupled with the self-congratulatory and exceedingly false statements about the superiority of Canadian disease surveillance is just another episode in the arrogant and dysfunctional father-knows-best approach to providing health advice practiced by various Canadian authorities.
Dr. Phil would say the relationship between officials at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Canadian public is like a couple headed for divorce: they don't speak unless forced to, and when asked, it's denial, deceit and deception.
Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star reports today that a major review of Canada's food recall system three years ago identified serious problems that experts say continue to threaten public safety.
“Spotty inspections across the country, delays in warning the public about tainted food and a lack of follow-up to prevent repeat outbreaks are documented in the government report, obtained through access to information legislation.
(1).jpg)
The 2005 Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) review predicts concerns that have emerged from the current Maple Leaf listeria outbreak that has claimed 18 lives.
"There is no clear policy on when a recall requires public warning," the report states.
Timely public disclosure of food risks re-emerged as an issue last month when it took three weeks for officials to warn the public of tainted Maple Leaf meat. …
In the aftermath of the outbreak, public health officials and politicians were quick to reassure Canadians that the country has one of the best food safety systems in the world. But behind the scenes, the review documents a history of serious internal concerns: "Most findings in this report have previously been identified by the various parties involved in food recalls."
The CFIA audit paints a picture of a sometimes-chaotic system where turf wars can impact the public's need to know about food warnings. …
Doug Powell, a Canadian food safety expert working at Kansas State University, said any warnings officials received from the review appear to have been ignored. "It's contentment with mediocrity. The bureaucrats don't seem to care very much. They all talk a good game, but they never think it will happen to them, so they just go on."
I can imagine Dr. Phil asking in his Texas drawl "How's that working out for ya’ll?"
The most frustrating part is that CFIA is staffed with individuals who are excellent public advocates and spokespeople. On issues relating to mad cow disease or avian influenza, CFIA goes out of its way to communicate with Canadians, perhaps fearing that any crisis of confidence will reduce sales and impact Canadian farms.
Yet when it comes to the 11 to 13 million foodborne illnesses in Canada each and every year, CFIA has adopted a policy of don't ask, don't tell.
Maybe Dr. Phil can get the public and CFIA into a relationship based on open communication, trust, and respect, but I doubt it. Time to move on.
Play cold-cut cannon and shoot down stupid listeria statements
CanWest is reporting that a new website that allows people to shoot down pictures of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz with a cannon firing cold cuts has surfaced on the Internet, as calls for his resignation continue to grow over jokes he made during the deadly listeriosis outbreak.
Set against a backdrop of Parliament Hill, the satirical website - www.deathby1000coldcuts.info - invites participants to "fire salami slices from your cold cut cannon over the skies of Parliament to defend the honour of Canada and the sensibilities of your fellow citizens!"
Impact of listeria on infants in B.C. documented
A new report shows that of the 78 residents of the Canadian province of British Columbia who contracted listeriosis in the past six years, 10 per cent were pregnant women whose infections put them at high risk of miscarriage or stillbirth.
The majority -- nearly 60 per cent -- of pregnant women diagnosed with listeriosis either miscarry or have stillbirths.
.jpg)
In a case described in the current B.C. Medical Journal, a pregnant woman in her 30s went to a Lower Mainland hospital complaining of a stiff neck, fever, back pain and headache. After arriving, she delivered a stillborn baby at 21 weeks gestation.
The authors wrote,
"Health care providers [want] better information for themselves and resources they could share with pregnant women. … The information provided to pregnant women by health care providers needs to be targeted and clear," and that as a result of the spring survey, BCCDC will start a project to better inform health care providers and their patients about food safety risks during pregnancy.
It’s a national embarrassment that statistics on listeriosis in Canada are either not available or hopelessly unreliable. Further, the call to action probably never would have gotten noticed were it not for the 24 deaths and dozens of illnesses in the Maple Leaf listeria outbreak. Pregnant women and other at-risk populations deserve better.
Death by cold-cuts? Canadian Ag Minister not as funny as he thinks he is
Michael McCain, the president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods made a strategic decision once his company decided to handle the growing listeria mess in Canada by saying this wasn’t about government, it was about his company: he effectively cut himself loose from bizarre to self-congratulatory to purely political messages from government and bureaucrats.
That decision looks real smart tonight.
CTV.ca is reporting that during a conference call with scientists, bureaucrats and political staff on Aug. 30, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said, after fretting about the political dangers of the Listeria scare, he quipped:
"This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts."
Then when told of a death in Prince Edward Island, Ritz said, "Please tell me it's (Liberal MP) Wayne Easter."
Easter is the Liberal agriculture critic and has called for Ritz's resignation over his handling of the outbreak, which was linked to a Maple Leaf Foods meat processing plant north of Toronto.
Kory Teneycke, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office, said Ritz expressed regret over his remarks to Stephen Harper but there was no suggestion of resigning.
Ritz said,
"My comments were tasteless and completely inappropriate. I apologize unreservedly."
Canoe news reports that Ritz was "less contrite when he was asked about his comments after his flight from Saskatoon touched down at the Ottawa airport Wednesday afternoon". 
A bearded man with Ritz jostled with journalists as the agriculture minister beelined through the terminal to a waiting sedan. At one point the man grabbed a reporter's recorder and jabbed at the off button.
For two minutes Ritz stared dead ahead as he was peppered with questions about the conference call. His only words were clipped.
"Not right now, guys," he said.
Then: "Get out of my face, please."
Maple Leaf listeria plant to re-open, creates new food safety position, questions remain
Three weeks after the Maple Leaf financial dude told the markets the plant would reopen, the Maple Leaf listeria plant is about to reopen and produce deli-meats.
The company has videos, a long list of food safety enhancements they are adopting, and has created the position of 'chief food safety officer.'
Guess I thought a $5 billion a year company would already have one of those. But that’s one of the things I find most challenging – how to compel everyone from maintenance crews to CEOs that food safety matters, especially in the absence of an outbreak. Now there’s an outbreak, 24 suspected or confirmed dead, 56 ill.
"Throughout this incident we have steadfastly placed consumers' interests first" said Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods.
That remains to be seen as more is uncovered about why there were delays and lousy notification as news of the outbreak initially trickled out. But yes, once the problem became publicly apparent, the company acted in great fashion.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal yesterday called for a full public inquiry. Not necessary, and a waste of taxpayers money. A few Bill Marler lawsuits would reveal far more about who knew what when.
Or people could do their jobs:
• Maple Leaf in conjunction with the various public authorities should provide a full public accounting of who knew what when and what was done to find out more;
• some sort of warning system about the risk of listeriosis in foods must be developed for at-risk populations – especially pregnant women and the elderly because they are the ones who get sick and die; and,
• make all data of listeria testing in plants public so others in the industry can improve and consumer confidence can be enhanced with data not just words.
There's a new Maple Leaf Listeria video
Just saw the below video during the CTV nightly news with trustworthy Lloyd Robertson. Michael McCain is keeping interested folks up-to-date on what's going on with the Listeria clean-up in Maple Leaf plants.
Still nothing on the results from the 3000 annual samples though.
Delay in diagnosing listeriosis outbreak 'inexcusable;' inspectors union plays politics
I’m in Kansas now, and while the InterTubes are sometimes broken, we’ve generally progressed beyond the stagecoach. UPS is a frequent guest at our mini-mansion on the hill.
I’ve taken to describing the delay in public advisories and test results in the Canadian listeria outbreak as being due to the time it takes to send samples by stagecoach to the national lab in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, a story in the K-W Record confirms this.
Dr. Don Low, medical director of Ontario's provincial lab in Toronto, has finally joined me in calling the delay in test results when listeria emerged in mid-July, “inexcusable.”
"It is inexcusable to wait that number of days in order to get an answer back. The (Ontario) public health lab should be doing it. That has to change."
Meat samples travelled first from Toronto to a Health Canada lab in Ottawa, arriving on July 24, where they were tested for listeriosis.
It took until Aug. 5 -- 12 days -- for results to come back positive.
The samples were then shipped to Winnipeg's national lab for "genetic fingerprinting" to determine whether the same strain of listeriosis in the meat matched blood samples from the victims.
Those test results, essential for tracking the source of the outbreak, took another 10 days to reach Toronto Public Health, says Dr. Vinita Dubey, the city's associate medical officer of health.
When a salmonella outbreak hit the Southern U.S. only a month before Canada's meat outbreak, testing was completed and public warnings were issued in a few days.
Meanwhile, Canadian politicians and bureaucrats were congratulating themselves on how well the system worked. What an embarrassment.
But don’t expect to hear any such criticism from the meat inspectors union. Instead, they launched a website and some public campaign during the Canadian election to hire 1,000 more meat inspectors who apparently will have listeria vision goggles which will allow them to better manage microbial risks. They have a bunch of other political points, all about securing jobs for inspectors, but not once did they mention, hey, people are dead and dying here. There’s too many sick people and we’re interested in having fewer sick people. Nope. Both the political and union leaders protect their own constituencies for political gain.
As Dr. Low says, it’s inexcusable.
Handling of the listeriosis outbreak is a disgrace
That’s the headline from this morning’s Globe and Mail, Canada’s self-proclaimed national newspaper.
Veteran medical reporter Andre Picard writes,
“In Canada, we have developed a perverse fondness for commissions of inquiry and their retrospective self-flagellation and contrition.
Inquiries are explicitly forbidden from laying blame, criminal or civil. They invariably make wonderful recommendations - most of them glaringly obvious - and many of which will never be implemented.
“What ever happened to people actually doing their jobs? What happened to taking responsibility? And what about the quaint notion that governments should govern?
Before we spend $10-million or $20-million or $50-million on an inquiry into luncheon meats, let's step back for a minute and examine what we know about what happened, what went wrong and how we can do better. …
Nor do you need an esteemed judge and hours of cross-examination by top-notch legal counsel to know that the response to suspected contamination of mass-produced meat products was far too slow and secretive.
People started dying in June, and it took until mid-August to trace the problem to the plant. On Aug. 13, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was in the plant looking for the source of listeria monocytogenes, Maple Leaf started warning distributors to stop shipping some meats. But nobody told the public to stop eating them.
By Aug. 17, there were positive lab tests and it was abundantly clear a number of deaths were due to the contamination. Yet it wasn't until Aug. 20 that the public was really warned of the extent of the problem. And products were still being recalled, in piecemeal fashion, into September. …
The way the CFIA warns the public of food-borne threats and manages recalls is a disgrace. Transparency and good communication are essential in responding to any public health threat but, at the CFIA, information is released in dribs and drabs, without coherence or context, and almost always on a voluntary basis by manufacturers.
In this case, thankfully, Maple Leaf was, after some initial foot-dragging, quite open. CEO Michael McCain gave the public more information and explanation than all government agencies combined. He also had the backbone and decency to apologize.
Federal cabinet ministers contented themselves with uttering a few platitudes.
Gerry Ritz, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Foods, had this to say more than three weeks after the outbreak was discovered: "Our professionals are working to resolve this situation as quickly as possible." Instead of an apologia for second-rate work, he should have been kicking CFIA butts around the block.
Health Minister Tony Clement, for his part, was gushing with pride about the actions of the Public Health Agency of Canada even before the final body count was in.
We don't need more reports to gather dust on shelves. … And above all, you need to take responsibility for your actions (and inaction).
That is something government agencies like CFIA and PHAC, and in particular their political masters, seem unable to grasp.
That willful blindness and aversion to leadership is a bigger threat to the health of Canadians than bacteria in luncheon meats."
Pregnant woman miscarries because of listeria in Quebec cheese
Public health officials in Quebec say a pregnant woman in the province has lost her baby, possibly because of listeriosis.
Officials are still awaiting test results to confirm whether the woman who lost her baby was infected with the bacteria, said Dr. Horatio Arruda, Quebec's director of public health protection.
She didn’t lose the baby. It’s not like she misplaced the baby somewhere. The baby died because of listeria. Pregnant women should not eat a whole bunch of refrigerated ready-to-eat foods, but in the rush to promote raw milk cheese and food porn, those in charge forgot to remind those who are vulnerable of the risks.
Max Dubois, the owner of L'Échoppe des Fromages in St. Lambert, wants to know who will compensate him for the $40,000 worth of cheese inspectors seized and destroyed from his store on Saturday.
"Why could they not have organized a voluntary recall, as they do in France. Each cheese would have been sent away for analysis. We would have better been able to trace the spread of the bacteria. But now all the evidence has been destroyed. We'll never know if it was spread through a distributor, or on the paper it was wrapped in, or in some other way."
Uh, France is no better. Here is the latest French cheese recall due to listeria.
Microbiologist Jacques Goulet, a cheese specialist in the food science department at Université Laval, says he, too, believes the government over-reacted.
"Listeria is present everywhere. But for most people, the risk posed by listeriosis is very low. Healthy people are rarely affected by the bacteria," he said, noting that the annual average of listeriosis cases in Quebec is about 50. (The public health department reported 63 cases in 2007 and 49 in 2006.).
Way to cite statistics. The people who got sick are real people who thought they were eating safe food.
Listeria in cheese from Toronto shop sickened pregnant woman
On Aug. 29, 2008, Ping Chiu, owner of Cheese Magic in Kensington Market, had to throw out $1,000 worth of cheese and wasn’t happy about it.
"According to the health inspector, it was listeria. Although I was told by two big cheese suppliers that it can't be listeria."
It was listeria.
“Health officials confirmed Tuesday that product sold at a popular Kensington Market cheese shop was the source of the listeria bacterium that sickened a pregnant customer.
“Cheese Magic at 182 Baldwin St. was closed down last week after a regular customer fell ill after contracting listeriosis. Health inspectors also claim they found cat and mouse droppings in a food area of the store, mould growth inside a walk-in cooler, and products stored at incorrect temperatures.
“The business has since reopened after inspectors found it had met all safety requirements when they revisited the shop.”
For some bizarre reason, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, an Associate Medical Officer of Health for Toronto Public Health, felt it necessary to downplay the risk of listeria, especially for pregnant women, rather than shout it from the rooftops.
“Keep in mind that the risk from listeriosis is low for healthy individuals. Those most at risk of developing serious illness are pregnant women, the elderly, and those with weak immune systems."
Thanks. My pregnant wife will keep that in mind. So will the pregnant woman who got sick. At some point Canadian health types will have an honest discussion with consumers at risk without worrying if they will offend industry.
Seven pregnant women among 14 sickened with listeria from Quebec cheese
In 2004, I spent a week at a cottage with a couple of my children in Eastern Ontario near Sandbanks Provincial Park on Lake Ontario. Lovely spot.
One rainy day, we toured around and ended up at a cheese shop. They produced the cheese in the factory at the back, and had a charming market outlet that seemed to trap tourists like bees on sap.
Upon entering the store, a sign declared, “HACCP – A food safety program; Hazard Analysis Critical Control Pont.” Cool. I asked one of the staff what it meant. She said she didn’t know.
But beside the HACCP proclamation was a sign that read, “Public bathroom is out of order; for your convenience there is a blue Johnny on the spot behind the building (sic).”
And here it is (left). Note the lack of handwashing facilities or sanitizer. I watched people go to the porta potty and then come into the cheese shop and do what people do at quaint cheese shops: stick their unwashed hands into shared samples of curds (that’s one of my daughters looking disgusted in the middle, right, not because of the practice, but because I have to take pictures and be a food safety geek everywhere we go).
HACCP really doesn’t mean much unless there is a culture of food safety amongst the employees and everyone involved in making a product, like cheese or deli meat.
Best as I can figure, there is a separate outbreak of listeria in Quebec, in which one has died and 14 have been sickened. Eleven different types of cheese have been recalled, and many of them appear to be raw milk cheese, which the Quebec government recently approved for sale.
While merchants are complaining about the crackdown and lost sales, what seems to have been lost in the coverage is that seven pregnant women – four confirmed, three suspected – have developed listeriosis and three gave birth prematurely.
Sylvie Thibault, a customer sampling some of the free cheeses at La Fromagerie Atwater yesterday, said she's not worried, stating,
"I have started to double-check what cheese I buy. But I won't stop eating the food I love because of a little scare."
Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society, said,
"We need to put this in perspective," adding it's important "not to have people think every time they bite into a piece of brie, they're risking death."
Wow. I wouldn’t want to be pregnant in Quebec. So, Quebec government (Canada has no real authority in Quebec), given the number of pregnant women who have been sickened, any efforts to highlight the risks of listeria in certain foods to at-risk populations? Or is it just a silly little scare?
The recalled products from Fromagerie Medard are: Le Rang des Iles, Le 14 Arpents, Les Petits Vieux, Le Gedeon, Le Medard, Le Couventine, Le Cabrouet and Les Cailles, all with best-before dates between July 12 and Sept. 6. Products pulled off shelves from Fromagerie Table Ronde are: Le Fleurdelyse, Le Fou de Roi and Le Rassembleu with best-before dates after July 14.
Last week, cheeses manufactured by Fromages La Chaudiere were recalled because of salmonella, blamed for the death of an elderly person in the Chaudiere Appalaches region and 90 illnesses across Quebec.
Playing politics with listeria in Canada
“In October, 1996, 16-month-old Anna Gimmestad of Denver drank Smoothie juice manufactured by Odwalla Inc. of Half Moon Bay, Calif. She died several weeks later; 64 others became ill in several western U.S. states and British Columbia after drinking the same juices, which contained unpasteurized apple cider --and E. coli O157:H7. Investigators believe that some of the apples used to make the cider may have been insufficiently washed after falling to the ground and coming into contact with deer feces.
“The Odwalla outbreak, and dozens of others, illustrate some basics about E. coli O157:H7 that have gotten lost in the rush --especially by some virulent columnists --to describe the Walkerton outbreak through the filters of political preference. E. coli O157:H7 is part of nature, a natural world that will change and adapt as humans alter their version of the world. But for all the railing against so-called factory or industrial farming, the links remain tenuous. In fact, such assumptions and finger-pointing can actually be dangerous as individuals become less vigilant, assuming that such problems only happen to other people in other places.”
That’s what I wrote in Canada’s National Post on June 3, 2000 in the wake of the Walerton, Ontario, E. coli O157:H7 outbreak which would kill seven and sicken 2,500 in a town of 5,000.
The person in charge of the municipal water system for Walkerton was found to add chlorine based on smell and criminally convicted; the farm was a cow-calf operation that was the poster farm for Environmental Farm Plans.
No matter.
The same mind-numbing politics is now dominating the listeria outbreak in Canada which has killed 19 and sickened dozens.
The cause of the outbreak appears to be the accumulation of listeria in meat slicers used at the Maple Leaf plant in Toronto. The feds have advised all registered establishments that manufacture ready-to-eat meat products to step up their cleaning protocols. Bill Marler noted some other examples related to listeria and meat slicers in a post this morning.
No matter.
A letter writer to the Toronto Star this morning says the only people affected by listeria are “those whose immune systems are low because they have been eating a nutritionally poor diet of mostly processed foods … we would all be better off if we bought fresh, unprocessed food from local farms. These foods would keep our immune systems strong so they could easily ward off a few harmful bacteria.
Guess the letter writer has never heard of pregnant women getting listeria (see next post).
On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper set the terms of reference for an investigation into the listeriosis outbreak:
• Examine the events, circumstances and factors that contributed to the outbreak.
• Review the efficiency and effectiveness of the response by federal agencies in terms of prevention, the recall of contaminated products, and collaboration and communication among partners in the food safety system and the public.
• Make recommendations aimed at enhancing prevention of future outbreaks and the removal of contaminated products from stores and warehouses.
No matter.
The report is due before March 15, 2009.
Harper then called a Canadian election for Oct. 14, 2008.
Bob Kingston, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada's Agriculture Union, said in a news release,
"We already know the problem is too few inspectors . . . in a system that relies too much on the food industry to police itself.”
Apparently the union inspectors have super vision and can see listeria – especially in the depths of slicing machines.
Others are calling for a full-scale inquiry, like what happened after Walkerton and in Ontario after some dodgy meat slaughtering practices were uncovered (the Haines report). I participated in both inquiries. There is no need for another.
The Ministers of Agriculture and Health, or the Prime Minister’s office, need to call up the bureaucrats and say,
"People are pissed. Give me a clear accounting of who knew what when so I can give a clear accounting to the public. I want the report on my desk Monday at 7 a.m. I’ve got an election campaign going on."
Maple Leaf identifies likely source of listeria contamination at plant
Maple Leaf Foods continues its textbook risk communication, being the first to publicly provide information about the source of the listeria contamination that has killed 19 and sickened dozens.
But is it enough?
“After careful study of the records, the physical plant and product test results received from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), internal and external experts have concluded that the most likely source was a possible collection point for bacteria located deep inside the mechanical operations of two slicing machines on lines 8 and 9. Rigorous sanitization of this equipment was completed on a daily basis in accordance with or exceeding the equipment manufacturer's recommendations. However, upon full disassembly, areas were found where bacteria may accumulate deep inside the slicing machines and avoid the sanitization process. There were also other environmental factors, not on product contact surfaces, that may have contributed to the contamination.
"We deeply regret this incident and the impact it has had on people's lives," said Michael McCain, President and CEO. "We have the highest food safety standards and we have worked around the clock and left no stone unturned to identify the root cause and eliminate the source of this contamination. Throughout this crisis we have done whatever it takes to place our consumers' interests and public health first. It's now up to us to earn back your confidence."
Concerns with slicing machines are hardly new regarding listeria. The company has taken some good steps, but can do more:
• Release the results of the 3,000 listeria swabs your company takes every year to provide some data, some meaning, to your claims that public health is your top priority?
• Support some kind of point-of-sale initiative – warning labels or otherwise – to explicitly warn pregnant women and immunocomprimized Canadians that, as you say, listeria is so widespread in the environment, that vulnerable people should not eat your products, unless they are heated or some other kill step is employed.
Should deli meats be on the menu for pregnant women and at medical care facilities?
After four kids, I was familiar with the look.
“How long have you been pregnant,” I asked the thirty-something as we filled our plates during the catered lunch at a meeting in 2000 in Ottawa.
.jpg)
“About six weeks.”
The American media had been filled with coverage of listeria after the 1998-1999 Sara Lee Bil Mar hot dog outbreak in which 80 were sickened, 15 killed and at least 6 pregnant women had miscarriages. Risk assessments had been conducted, people were talking about warning labels, and especially, the risks to pregnant women.
There was no such public discussion in Canada.
So as I watched the pregnant PhD load up on smoked salmon, cold cuts and soft cheese for lunch, I wondered, do I say something?
One of the biggest risks in pregnancy is protein deficiency. What if smoked salmon, cold cuts and soft cheeses were this woman’s biggest source of protein? (Turns out they were.)
Another big risk factor is stress. I didn’t want to freak her out. Besides, who the hell am I to say anything?
We sat together during lunch and chatted about babies, her aspirations and how she was feeling. Eventually I introduced the subject of listeria by talking about a risk assessment that had recently been published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and that maybe she would be interested in looking at the results. I felt sorta goofy.
Eight years later, I don’t feel so goofy. Instead I’m frustrated at the lack of awareness, not only amongst pregnant women but amongst the elderly, other immunocompromised individuals, and the institutions and professionals that are supposed to look out for others.
Most of the now 12 confirmed and 6 suspected deaths related to Maple Leaf deli meats were consumed in places like nursing homes.
The Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors, an umbrella group, was unaware of the recommendation that immunocompromised avoid deli meats to reduce the risk of listeria, unless they are thoroughly heated.
Association executive director Donna Rubin said,
"We've contacted dietitians that have long-standing experience in our homes and they've never been warned about listeriosis or deli meats being a huge issue or that they should be avoided.”
An Ontario Health Ministry spokesman said it has no specific policy against serving sliced meats in nursing homes, and Health Canada officials said banning certain foods from seniors homes is not in its jurisdiction. Health Canada has never recommended health facilities stop serving deli meats, noting that hospitals are a provincial responsibility.
In Calgary, two nursing home operators, Carewest and Bethany Care Society, confirmed some of their facilities serve cold meats.
Janice Kennedy, a Bethany spokeswoman, said,
"If public health says not to serve cold cuts to seniors, then we wouldn't. We're still meeting requirements."
It all sounds bureaucratic to me, as the death toll increases.
And the pregnant woman? When I saw her at another meeting a couple of months later, she thanked me for providing her with information about listeria and risky foods for pregnant mothers.
17 confirmed and suspected dead in Canadian listeria outbreak
The listeria outbreak in Canada goes from bad to worse as authorities announced Sunday afternoon (Aug. 31/08) there are now 11 confirmed and 6 suspected deaths linked to consumption of Maple Leaf deli meats; further, 33 are confirmed ill and another 25 are suspected of being ill with the outbreak strain. However, no comprehensive timeline for the onset of illnesses has been provided.
The developments over the past week are difficult to keep straight. As journalists probe how this happened – how the risk of Listeria monocytogenes was managed – a number of revelations have emerged:
• employees are alleging that sanitation at the suspect plant was substandard prior to the outbreak and that daily cleaning procedures were not consistently followed or thorough enough;
• U.S. Department of Agriculture audits found that 19 of 20 Canadian plants were not complying with sanitation standards, while Canadian inspectors were not always aware of their duties, "and were not well trained in the performance of their inspection tasks;" Canadian regulators urged the Americans to soften their language;
• Rick Holley of the University of Manitoba said Canada lacks the surveillance systems that could lead to better detection of foodborne illnesses, in stark contrast to the United States, which takes a much more active approach to addressing food safety through the FoodNet system.
• until Friday, when David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, revealed that most of the fatalities in Ontario occurred in July, no details had been released on when individuals died or when they first became sick;
• a separate outbreak of listeria in cheese has emerged in Quebec sickeneing 47 people and leading to the suspension of product sales from the Île aux Grues cheese company;
• an additional separate outbreak of Salmonella in cheese in Quebec has killed one and sickened at least 87 others and lead to additional recalls of three cheeses manufactured by Fromages La Chaudiere Inc.; and,
• Canada’s minister of agriculture and agri-food, Gerry Ritz, held a news conference Thursday to assure Canadians "our food safety system is the best in the world" and that work will continue to improve it.
And now, a message from Canada's chief public health officer that went on youtube Thursday.
Sun TV listeria outbreak coverage
I did a phone-in interview with Sun TV (Toronto) yesterday which focused on what we can learn from the outbreak and what consumers could do to protect themselves. Irradiation seems to be coming up a lot in coverage and interviews that we are doing, likely fueled by the FDA's announcement to allow the irradiation of certain ready-to-eat leafy greens and Health Canada's Jeff Farber saying that the government is considering approving the irradiation of meats early next year. Irradiation has been approved for certain specific single-ingredient meats (like ground beef) in the U.S. since 1997, with the USDA approving it's commercial use in 1999 though it's use in deli meats is not currently approved. Last night I said that irradiation is a tool that can be used to reduce risk and impact public health, but by no means is a magic bullet in pathogen control.
The best part of the interview 
wasn't the content (YouTube vid below) but was my huge head appearing over Janette Luu's shoulder as if I was going to eat her (right, exactly as shown). Janette, probably sensing some impending doom appears to be leaning away from my picture as well.
Below is the original pic where the headshot came from. I think it is less creepy.
Maple Leaf's McCain has the communication goods; now show us the data
Maple Leaf president Michael McCain told the media today that,
“I once again wish to express my deepest personal sympathies to those Canadians who have been affected by this tragedy. While this is the most unfortunate of events possible, I absolutely do not believe that this is a failure of the Canadian food safety system or the regulators.
“Certainly knowing that there is a desire to assign blame, I want to reiterate that the buck stops right here.
“As I've said before, Maple Leaf Foods is 23,000 people who live in a culture of food safety. We have an unwavering commitment to keep our food safe, and we have excellent systems and processes in place. But this week it's our best efforts that failed, not the regulators or the Canadian food safety system.”
Good for McCain. He runs a company with world-class aspirations, so he’s not weaseling away from the spotlight.
And he unshackled the company of any political or bureaucratic commentary – which has been fairly hopeless all along.
But if McCain is going to step up, he’s also going to get some questions,
McCain says, “a comprehensive study done at the University of Regina gave Canada one of five superior ratings out of 17 top-tier OECD countries in a world review of food safety. This highlights that Listeria is a particularly challenging bacteria for the entire food industry to manage, including the United States and Europe, simply because it is pervasive."
That study was fairly challenged and has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Don’t cite shit.
And you didn’t address any of the tough issues.
Will you release the results of the 3,000 listeria swabs your company takes every year to provide some data, some meaning, to your claims that public health is your top priority?
Will you back some kind of point-of-sale initiative – warning labels or otherwise – to explicitly warn pregnant women and immunocomprimized Canadians that, as you say, listeria is so widespread in the environment, that vulnerable people should not eat your products.
Michael McCain, you’ve taken some great first steps and gone way beyond what government has done. The sooner you lose them the better; they’re deadweight and not very good hockey players. They don’t lose their jobs, and they don’t lose sleep about falling stock prices.
Me, Ben, Amy and the rest of our team are here to help you actually implement that culture of food safety you and your folks are so fond of citing. We’ve noticed you liked the pictures of recalled products idea. We’re not just armchair quarterbacks, and we’re just an e-mail away.
The shit that is listeria in Canada
The first time I met Amy, at a Canadian studies club meeting at Kansas State, I told Amy the French professor that French food was overrated and that sleeping with her cocker spaniel was a microbiological hazard.
She asked me out anyway.
Today we walked up to school and Sadie, the dog that saved our relationship, had a dump. And then there was this worm-like turd hanging out of her ass.
I thought and hoped and prayed it would go away.
It didn’t.
So I grabbed a stick and tried to knock the poop off her ass.
No luck.
So Amy gave me a tissue and I pulled the hanging turd out of her ass and there was another six inches of stick that came out.
Gross. Like when my daughter Courtlynn hurled as the plane landed in Atlanta – those airplane barf bags are fairly solid and I got it in time.
I really just needed a break from writing about the shit that is listeria in Canada.
Canadian government information on listeria is mushy
My friend Marty will think this is hilarious, but I’m a bit of a fancier of words.
Really.
Except I have a habit of using an apt sounding word that means something totally different from what I was trying to convey. Marty has been making fun of that quirk for 25 years, going back to our university newspaper days. Fortunately, the computer dictionary has helped.
So has Amy. She’s really sharpened my word usage and helped me become a better writer. One of Amy’s greatest pleasures is identifying when people mix up it’s and its.
So when a wire story came out this morning with the lede,
“As Canada grapples with a deadly outbreak of listeriosis, a leading food safety expert says the federal government has not done enough to educate pregnant women and seniors about the potential dangers of eating deli meats.
”
I went a bit nuts.
I would never say that anyone needs to be educated. It’s arrogant. Sure, I’m perceived as arrogant about lots of things, but on this I’m clear: provide information, preferably in a compelling manner, and individuals will decide whether they want to be educated or not. I’m writing a paper about this. I’ve brought students to tears for using the educate people line.
"Maybe we need warning labels (on the food), because the message isn't getting out there," said Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University.
"
The Health Canada response was typically bureaucratic.
"There are a number of food safety tips and fact sheets and a lot of consumer education on this," said Paul Duchesne of Health Canada.
Show me the data. Show anyone the evaluation you’ve done with your big budgets to ensure Canadians at risk are aware. Demonstrate the effectiveness of your fact sheets and consumer education which are best used as a sleep aid.
Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has publicly admitted, new strategies are required to reach people about food safety issues. As I said earlier this year,
"The CDC data show existing efforts to reduce fodborne illness have stalled. We need new messages using new media to really create a culture that values microbiologically safe food."
It’s not like this stuff is hard. We wrote a paper on it last year.
Powell, D.A., Surgeoner, B.V., Wilson, S.M. and Chapman, B.J. 2007. The media and the message: Risk analysis and compelling food safety information from farm-to-fork. Aust. J. Dairy Tech. 62(2), 55-59.
Abstract
The potential for stigmatization of food is enormous. Well-publicized outbreaks of foodborne illness through traditional and new media demonstrate the rapid and dependent interactions between science, policy and public perception. Current risk management research indicates that it is essential for risk managers from farm-to-fork to demonstrate they are reducing, mitigating or minimizing a particular foodborne risk. Those responsible must be able to effectively communicate their risk reduction efforts in multiple media and to provide evidence that these efforts are actually reducing levels of risk.
Guess the folks at CFIA didn't get that paper. A well-meaning staffer at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency sent me an e-mail the other day, stating,
“The Media Monitoring Team here at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has been asked by our Director to start monitoring reputable food safety related blogs.
“I was wondering if you would happen to have a prepared list of any of these sites, and, if so, if you would be willing to share these with us?”
Sure. Always ready to help the government when asked. I told him barfblog.com and marlerblog.com. The other posers just run headlines.
But maybe I’m just a crazy Kansas-type. Jennie Garth, who is reprising her role as Kelly Taylor on a new 90210, enlightened the world as to why the new "90210" is likely to resonate with young viewers.
"It's going to reflect teenagers as they are. It's not going to sugarcoat it. You know teenagers are teenagers no matter if they live in Beverly Hills or if they live in crazy Kansas somewhere. All the kids are the same. They're going through the same elemental issues and problems."
Does Maple Leaf read barfblog?
They've got pictures now.
After posting on Sunday night about the confusion around Maple Leaf's multiple brands and differing
packaging, and seeing consumer reaction to the same, I'm happy to see that Maple Leaf has stepped up with some better comminication. In the below clip from CBC Toronto, one concerned Canadian shopper shows her frustration by saying "it's kind of hard to tell... a lot of things you don't know if they come from the Maple Leaf thing".
My favourite Maple Leaf thing has always been Doug Gilmour, circa 1993.
Maple Leaf foods has posted a viewer-friendly graphic (at the bottom of the notice) of how to determine if a product is part of the recall. I especially like the inclusion of variances of the establishment code.
15 dead in Canadian listeria outbreak; government messages turn from bizarre to banal
Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, when it comes to the communication and building trust aspects of what must be your listeria nightmare, stay away from government.
Shortly after the first death was announced last Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008, various politicians and bureaucrats said the surveillance system was working. Robert Clarke, the assistant deputy minister of the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Friday that the government's actions in this case were quite rapid and an illustration of success.
I’ve been harping ever since that it’s impossible to tell from the various public statements who became sick when, and whether the system really worked or not. If you’re going to brag about how the system is working, you have to provide dates for onset of illness and deaths.
Today I got some company.
Toronto’s Globe and Mail wrote in an editorial that officials claiming surveillance success, “doth self-praise too much, too soon.
“Did the surveillance system work? No independent voice has said so yet, and it is hard to see why Mr. Clement's or Mr. Clarke's word should be taken at face value. The two-year-old Public Health Agency, which reports to Mr. Clement, has yet to distinguish itself for independence. And everyone - government health officials and the company involved, Maple Leaf Foods Inc. - considered it enough that the first warning of possible contamination went out to distributors, not the public. For four days, the loop was closed. Whether that was the right or the wrong approach, it does not do much for the public's confidence in Canada's food-safety system.”
Columnist Tom Brodbeck of the Winnipeg Sun wrote that,
“Federal Health Minister Tony Clement says the recent tainted meat outbreak that killed six people and caused at least 14 more serious illnesses is a shining example of how well Canada's food inspection system works.
Pardon? …
“If this is what Clement calls a success story, I'd hate to see what he considers a system failure. … I don't think six deaths and 14 serious illnesses is anything to be proud of.”
These comments about success are even more bizarre and appalling now that the confirmed and probable death toll has been raised to 15.
So this afternoon, Dr. David Butler-Jones, MD, Chief Public Health Officer (that’s a lot of capitals), who had previously lauded the success of the surveillance system, wrote in a press release that,
“As Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, I want to update Canadians on the state of the ongoing listeriosis outbreak.”
He really seems to enjoy that title; and he then proceeded to provide less than no information.
“We are all understandably concerned whenever we hear that something as precious as the food we eat may pose a danger. Years of effort to ensure safe and secure food supplies have allowed us to be confident in what we eat. …
“While not everything is preventable, fortunately there are some simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of illness for ourselves and our families. There are the usual things we should always be doing, like washing hands, storing and cooking food properly, washing fruits and vegetables well, and avoiding unpasteurized milk and milk products. …
“Canadians should be confident that the Government of Canada, through the
Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency, is working closely with all provinces, territories, and with Maple Leaf Foods to respond to this outbreak and protect the public's health.
“We can never be completely immune to the risk of contaminations and outbreaks, even with the best food safety system in the world. That is why we operate surveillance and other systems to identify potential outbreaks and do the detective work that helps us to find the cause and stop further problems. And what we learn from each experience helps us to improve the system further.”
As Napoleon Dynamite sorta said, “That’s like, the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
Why should Canadians have any confidence when the public servants at all these agencies with their six-figure salaries can’t provide basic information like who got sick when? How arrogant is it to tell someone they should be confident in an alphabet soup of agencies, in the absence of any data or statements that inspire confidence?
Ben sent me a sports headline regarding the Olympics, which also fits for food safety: Canada remains happily mediocre.
That’s me and Ben, above right, not exactly as pictured.
And here's me with a clean shirt talking to CBC News.
Should deli meats carry warning labels?
Warning labels are a lousy risk management strategy, but the outbreak of listeria in Canada which has killed at least 12 and sickened dozens has had lots of lousy aspects. So why not?
A story that is running across Canada this morning says,
With pregnant women and the elderly especially at risk from Listeria, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency needs to step up efforts to alert people to the hazard — perhaps going so far as to put warning labels on deli products — said University of Guelph adjunct professor Doug Powell.
What? Guess that was some stretch at Canadian content. I’m an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University. If I’m adjunct at Guelph, I want access to all the money that was provided to deliver news and is instead being used as some sort of room renovation fund by a department chair I never met.
The opinion piece that ran in the Toronto Star this morning was more accurate.
Michael McCain delivered a powerful and compelling apology over the weekend as authorities confirmed Maple Leaf deli meats were the likely source of food-borne illness that has killed at least six and sickened dozens.
Outbreaks of food and water-borne illness are far too common. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 30 per cent of people in so-called developed countries will suffer each and every year. That's a lot of sick people.
But the current listeria outbreak turns statistics into stories, and challenges a company like Maple Leaf, with world-class aspirations, to do better.
The first case of listeriosis apparently surfaced in late June. Why it took the various health authorities so long to make a link remains to be uncovered.
For now, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada and others are providing little in the way of details regarding who knew what when.
The authorities are, however, proving unjustifiably adept at praising themselves for the speed with which they responded to the outbreak.
Two months after the first case is not an early-warning system. The political barbs that have been tossed around – which provide no insight on managing listeria – are simply embarrassing given the loss of life and illness.
McCain and Maple Leaf are better than this, and can be better:
• Issue pictures of the recalled products:
Telling people to look for products that contain the stamp "Establishment (EST) 97B" puts too much of a burden on people who just wanted to go shopping, not do homework. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration realized this, and last year started including pictures on their recall notices for products deemed to be high health risks.
Pictures aren't superficial, they are good communication. It's difficult for even PhD-types to wade through nine pages of recalled products, and pictures can make the connection for those who don't always know what brands they buy.
• Warn pregnant women and others at risk from listeria in deli meats:
My wife is six months pregnant and she hasn't had deli meats or smoked salmon or other refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods for six months.
That's because, as Michael McCain says, the bacterium listeria is fairly much everywhere, difficult to control, and grows in the refrigerator. It also causes stillbirths in pregnant women, who are about 20 times more likely to contract the bug than other adults.
The banter in Canada about government or industry taking the lead on food inspection, whether food should be produced in large or small places, is misguided at best and more likely, political opportunism.
Long before the current outbreak, the advice from the Canadian government about listeria was mushy:
"Although the risk of listeriosis associated with foods from deli counters, such as sliced packaged meat and poultry products, is relatively low, pregnant women and immunosuppressed persons may choose to avoid these foods."
The advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is clear: Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated.
It has been documented that many pregnant women are not aware of the risks associated with consuming refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods like cold cuts.
Don't expect the bureaucrats in the Canadian government to do anything. If Michael McCain and Maple Leaf are truly concerned with public health, they could at a minimum put warning labels on their products. Maybe near the "(EST) 97B."
• Make your listeria data public:
Maple Leaf Foods spokesperson Linda Smith told CTV Newsnet Friday, officials at the plant are "... constantly looking for it (listeria), constantly swabbing and looking for it."
Smith said the equipment at the plant is sanitized every day and officials take about 3,000 swabs per year. The plant also has a microbiologist on site.
"This plant has an excellent food safety record, excellent inspection record, excellent external auditors. We'll never know exactly how it got here."
But you do have 3,000 samples per year. If Maple Leaf really wants to restore public confidence, release the listeria data. How many positives does the Toronto plant see in a year? Were there positives leading up to the initial Aug. 17 recall? If there were no positives, why not? What is the protocol when a positive is discovered?
Consumers can handle more, not less information about the food they eat.
Maple Leaf Foods has the unfortunate opportunity to set new standards for consumer confidence.
Douglas Powell of Brantford is an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University.
Maple Leaf Listeria developments
The coverage of this outbreak isn't really going away as more details came out yesterday.
Earlier in the day, Maple Leaf spokesperson Linda Smith was cited as saying that inspectors failed to detect listeria in this case, but they are constantly swabbing for the bacterium. "Did we find it? Absolutely not. We did not find that listeria," she said. "Did we let people down? Yes. But we were doing the right things."
On CBC's National tonight (clip below), Smith was quoted as saying "We would occasionally find a listeria positive swab, at which case we sanitize that complete area and swab again."
So which is it?
In legal news, and the lead story on Canada AM this morning, is that class action lawsuits in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have been launched according to Tony Merchant, of the Merchant Law Group LLP, who says residents in each of the provinces have contacted his firm about representation.
As I wrote this post, I saw Michael McCain's Maple Leaf apology on TV three times.
12 dead, 26 confirmed ill, 29 more suspected in Canadian listeria outbreak
I was talking with my mom yesterday. Her and dad live in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and she asked if I was busy with the listeria outbreak. I asked her if she was concerned at all, and she says she doesn’t buy deli meat – her, and more often, dad, will cook a roast or a ham and eat leftovers.
At that point, I realized I had become my parents. I do buy the occasional shaved turkey breast, and lots of smoked salmon, but it’s been nothing but roasts and birds fillets for the past six months of Amy’s pregnancy.
Others in Canada aren’t so sure what to do.
Ken Barnett of Ajax, Ontario, said that in the future, he and his wife are sticking to salads and salmon for lunch. I wonder if he knows smoked salmon is another one of those refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods that can harbor listeria.
“We’ve sort of made a decision not to buy any cold meats for the time being.”
Meanwhile, health types announced this afternoon that the number of dead in the Maple Leaf listeria outbreak has risen to six confirmed and six more suspected deaths, along with 26 confirmed illnesses and another 29 suspected ill.
Meat types this afternoon said the Canadian meat supply was among the safest in the world, and that,
“Canadian consumers should be assured that Canada's meat supply is recognized amongst the safest in the world.”
The release went on to describe all the money that has been invested in the meat system and that consumers needed to do their part. I’m sure none of this was reassuring to the dead and sick, especially since these are ready-to-eat products.
Medical types on Vancouver Island received a letter warning them to be on the lookout for patients with symptoms of listeria. Shouldn’t this have happened two months ago when the first cases were reported?
And an academic type, my buddy Rick Holley at the University of Manitoba, said he wasn't surprised to learn of the listeria outbreak since Canada's tracking of food-related illnesses is inadequate, and that,
"I am constantly troubled by the lack of surveillance information on foodborne and waterborne illnesses in Canada.”
Maple Leaf: Make your listeria data public
Relying on the government is a really bad strategy to rebuild confidence in a consumer brand. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada and any number of other agencies – 50 per cent of government press release content contains praise for other agencies -- have provided scant data during the listeria outbreak in Canada. A technical briefing last night was little more than another opportunity for government types to praise … themselves.
.jpg)
When was the first onset of illness? When were the various deaths recorded, and when were they identified as cases of listeriosis? How many pregnant women have been stricken and have there been any miscarriages or stillbirths?
Yesterday, Michael H. McCain, president & CEO of listeria-embattled Maple Leaf said in a press release,
"If there is any question in the consumers' mind about any product from that plant, then the onus is on us, and the CFIA, to act decisively and swiftly to restore consumer confidence. Our actions are guided by putting public health first."
I’d keep CFIA out of it. They test the plants for listeria a few times a year. As Maple Leaf Foods spokesperson Linda Smith told CTV Newsnet Friday, officials at the plant are,
"… constantly looking for it (listeria), constantly swabbing and looking for it."
Smith said the equipment at the plant is sanitized every day and officials take about 3,000 swabs per year. The plant also has a microbiologist on site, she said.
"This plant has an excellent food safety record, excellent inspection record, excellent external auditors. We'll never know exactly how it got here."
But you do have 3,000 samples per year. If Maple Leaf really wants to restore public confidence, release the listeria data. How many positives does the Toronto plant see in a year? Were there positives leading up to the initial Aug. 17, 2008 recall? If there were no positives, why not? What is the protocol when a positive is discovered?
Consumers can handle more, not less information about the food they eat.
Listeria recall: We've got pictures, Maple Leaf doesn't
Maple Leaf's CEO Michael McCain says his company has a culture of food safety. I've written about the food safety culture concept and believe that a big part of it is being ready for outbreaks and recalls. They happen. A lot.
I'm not sure what Mr. McCain and his team has done in preparation for this outbreak, but in March I wrote about Quaker Oats handling of a recall due to Salmonella in some of their Aunt Jemima products:
"Quaker Oats has great information on their website already [less than 4 hours after the recall], with a nice graphic on how to handle the recall.... Especially love that people can sign-up for ongoing info -- good preparation on Quaker Oats' part."
It looked like they were ready for a problem, and already had the resources in place to get information out to their customers.
The thing I liked the most about Quaker Oats' Aunt Jemima situation was that they had pictures of the recalled product. A company with a culture of food safety is ready for a recall, has a website with pictures and consumer-friendly information ready to go in anticipation, like Quaker Oats did.
Maple Leaf has a big list of recalled products (220, check it out here) but they don't have any pictures of them. It's not a superficial request to have some nice pictures to show folks what this stuff looks like, and where you can find the sometimes elusive codes/dates/establishment code. It's just good communication. The FDA realized this, and last year started including pictures on their recall notices for products that they have deemed to be high health risks (after the Castleberry's chili sauce recall). 
Sometimes I buy lunch meat. Sometimes I even get the prepackaged stuff. I don't always know what brand it is, and I don't know all the intricacies of the food system and get mixed up as to which parent company makes Shopsy's. The list system is confusing.
The Globe and Mail is reporting tonight that:
Maple Leaf is working with distributors to track down all 220 products from the Toronto site, which Mr. McCain told reporters could be anywhere in Canada. That could take as long as three to five days, he said during a news conference at the firm's Toronto head office.
At about 7:50pm this evening I thought I'd take a look at whether I could find any of these recalled products at the grocery store and get some pictures to demonstrate where the codes can be found.
I found some.
About 2 minutes after entering Ultra Food and Drug in Guelph, I was able to find the recalled Maple Leaf's EZee Sub Dagwood products, with the establishment code (denoted, I assume, by the "EST. 97B" still on the shelves. That's the bad news.
The good news is that I can use a real example of what one of the recalled products looks like and where the establishment code is. Something that Maple Leaf hasn't done.
Michael McCain of Maple Leaf: Should pregnant women eat deli meats?
There’s been an outbreak of babies amongst the food safety stalwarts in my lab. Katija delivered in June, Ben’s gonna be a daddy next month, and me, trying to keep up with the cool kids, at the end of November.
Michael McCain, the president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, seems sincere enough. He said yesterday that listeria is "pervasive" adding that,
"It (Listeria) is virtually impossible to eradicate in its entirety. It exists in plants, in supermarkets, potentially in your kitchen.”
That’s true. And deli meats and other refrigerated ready-to-eat foods like smoked salmon are particularly good sources of listeria.
Back in May, U.K. environmental health officers from 42 local authorities purchased 1,127 samples of sliced-at-the-counter cooked meats from food retailers including butchers, delicatessens, market stalls and supermarkets.
Laboratory tests found that 15 per cent of the samples were contaminated with low numbers of listeria on the day of purchase, while 7.3 per cent were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the more serious form of listeria.
Although these were within European Food Safety Standards, when the contaminated samples were tested again after storage for 48 hours in a refrigerator, the L. monocytogenes in some of the contaminated samples had multiplied to unsafe levels.
In July, 2008, health types in Ireland warned pregnant women to avoid ready-to-eat, refrigerated and processed foods, such as soft cheeses, cold cuts of meat, pates and smoked fish after an increase in pregnancy-related listeriosis.
A Dec. 2007 review of listeria in pregnancy states,
“One of the most important changes during pregnancy is the down-regulation of the cellular immune system. Because the fetus is genetically different from the mother, the body treats it as a graft. To prevent the maternal immune system from rejecting the fetus, cell-mediated immunity must therefore be suppressed during pregnancy. This is favored by high levels of progesterone. However, reduced cell-mediated immune function leads to increased susceptibility of the woman and her fetus to infections by intracellular pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. That is why pregnant women are 20 times more at risk of contracting listeriosis than are other healthy adults. Pregnant women account for 30% of all cases of listeriosis and 60% of cases among persons 10 to 40 years of age.
“Typically, systemic infection occurs most frequently after ingestion of food contaminated with L monocytogenes. The bacteria cross the mucosal barrier of the intestine, probably aided by active endocytosis of organisms by epithelial cells. Once in the bloodstream, bacteria spread to different sites, but they have a particular affinity for the central nervous system or placenta. While circulating, the bacteria are internalized by macrophages and other plasma cells and are thereafter spread cell-to-cell through phagocytosis. As a result, antibodies, complement, and neutrophils become unable to protect the host.”
And that’s why 6-months pregnant Amy hasn’t touched a deli product in over six months. But most women don’t know this. Neither do a lot of doctors or health professionals. During one of our prenatal visits, I asked the aid if there were any foods pregnant Amy should be avoiding.
She said, “no, not really.”
I specifically asked about deli meats.
She said, “Get the deli meat from the counter cause it’s fresher than the pre-packaged stuff.”
She didn’t know about listeria. Most people don’t. Researchers reported in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Health that in a survey of 586 women attending antenatal clinics in one private and two major public hospitals in New South Wales between April and November 2006, more than half received no information on preventing Listeria.
So, Michael McCain, I know what I’d tell my wife or any other pregnant woman. What would you tell a pregnant woman about deli meats? Would you be willing to put a health advisory on the back of the package?
McCain apologizes for Maple Leaf listeria; excellent risk communication, will the management of the risk stand scrutiny?
If your products kill and sicken people, it’s a good idea to say sorry. Many people think that saying sorry is an admission of guilt and will be used in court. Lawyer Bill Marler says that is not the case. To me, saying sorry is an expression of empathy. It’s a basic human response.
Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, took not only to the airwaves but to the Intertubes to convey his empathy and resolve at fixing the listeria situation. It’s an excellent piece of risk communication.
But communicating effectively about risks like listeria is never enough. Eventually, journalists and juries will start asking some tough questions about who knew what when. The Odwalla 1996 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in unpasteurized juice was also textbook risk communication, but the company was eventually revealed to have cut corners and ignored warning signs.
This is a tough situation that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Oh, and the critics who say that food produced locally would result in fewer illnesses are statistically challenged: to make a fair comparison between small and big producers, the number of illnesses per meals consumed is the true measure, and no one has offered that up; further, outbreaks involving local producers may never get picked up by the surveillance system.; and the big folks have the resources to invest in food safety. McCain says Maple Leaf has a culture of food safety. Maybe. The evidence will be laid out over the weeks and months to come.
If you go to the youtube post, you can see the comments, which already include,
“I just had further look at your recent earnings for the last quarter....if you are truly sorry, the families of those who lost loved ones should never have to work another day in their life. Whether you pay the victim’s families the millions of dollars that you can afford or not will tell if you are truly sorry.”
There will be more harsh words. McCain and Maple Leaf deserve praise for their risk communication efforts: how the risk was managed – who knew what when and what actions were taken – remains to be seen.
Maple Leaf cold-cuts confirmed as listeria source in Canada: at least 5 dead, dozens ill
Canwest News Service is first out of the block, citing a senior government official as saying Saturday that testing has confirmed that an outbreak of listeriosis that has claimed at least four lives – and probably several more -- across Canada has now been positively linked to processed meats produced at Maple Leaf Consumer Foods.
.jpg)
Earlier Saturday, the Public Health Agency of Canada upped to 21 the number of cases of a deadly listeriosis outbreak that have been confirmed so far in four provinces. The agency said in a statement that 16 of the cases were found in Ontario, three in British Columbia, and one each in Saskatchewan and in Quebec.
Three deaths in Ontario - St. Catharines, Hamilton and Waterloo - have been officially tied to the deadly strain of the food-borne listeria bacterium, and a fourth death on Vancouver Island has also been attributed to the strain.
The public health agency also said a further 30 suspected cases remain under investigation. Of those, 14 are in Ontario, eight are in Quebec, four are in Alberta and two each are in B.C. and Saskatchewan.
So, with the positive ID, will Canadian politicians and bureaucrats keep smugly bragging about their wonderful system for foodborne disease surveillance?
It’s impossible to tell from the various public statements who became sick when, and whether the system really worked or not. If you’re going to brag about how the system is working, you have to provide dates for onset of illness and deaths. Those dates have not been provided. Take a look at the updates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control concerning the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak and compare that with what comes out of various Canadian agencies. There is no comparison.
Tell the public what you know, what you don’t know, and what you’re doing to find out more.
Death toll from listeria in Canada climbs
Depending on what sources are cited, there are now four confirmed deaths in Ontario and one in B.C. from the same strain of listeria. Several more deaths are being investigated, and the number of ill will continue to rise.
The spin that various social actors and politicians are putting on this listeria outbreak is beyond gross – it’s set a new low for unwarranted aggrandizing.
While preparing to do a live interview with CBC NewsWorld on Thurs., the host introduced the program by saying that the first case of listeria was in a 36-year-old pregnant woman in late June. As a pregnant Amy looked on – she’s very supportive of my media activities and viciously edits much of my writing, and vice-versa – I tried not to go, WTF, as the cameras were rolling.
So I’m baffled why various politicians and health types are bragging about how well the system worked to identify this outbreak.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Friday that it was Ontario that "blew the whistle," stating,
"We've put in place a new system that allows us to detect an outbreak and to see a pattern very early in the game. I'm glad we got hold of it early and now we'll take serious steps working with the feds to put it behind us."
Robert Clarke, the assistant deputy minister of the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Friday that the government's actions in this case were quite rapid and an illustration of success.
"The fact that it actually moved along, got investigated, ended up at CFIA and others finding samples that were positive in the food was actually quite fast in terms of how these things could progress.”
Premier and PHAC dude, two months after the first case is not an early warning system. And while you’re blowing yourselves, how about a little empathy for the sick and dead?
On Friday, Michael McCain, president of Maple Leaf Foods, published a full-page open letter in major Canadian newspapers, stressing the steps the company has taken, including a voluntary recall of 23 meat products.
In an internal e-mail to Maple Leaf employees Thursday morning, McCain said,
“I'm sure most of you have read the newspapers and listened to the TV or radio reports like I have. This isn't something we should ever want to be in the news about, but we have no reason to hang our heads - we're doing what is the right thing to do in this situation…acting responsibly and with extraordinary precaution.
“The headlines certainly suggest that our product are the cause of the illness and single death reported. It is important to note that:
• Listeria exists all around us in our environment, all the time. 10% of us carry it on us (according to some reports), and it exists in broad types of food in small percentages.
• Listeriosis, caused by Listeria Monocytogenes, occurs regularly (some 60 cases per year in Canada), and is mostly effecting the immune deficient (see previous descriptions), and very sadly people do die from this who are susceptible
• All we know factually is this….we have had three small samples of two items test positive for LM, and that Public Health tell us there is an increase in listeriosis illness all connected to a single DNA pattern, with one related death. We DO NOT have factual linkage that these are related to our product, although we could not say it is impossible, given our own positive (albeit small sample) test result. Again, there is no factual linkage we are aware of.
• That is why we took the dramatic action we did - recall all the product (ALL - not just the products in question) from these lines, and shut down the plant for a "deep clean". These were precautionary measures, all made with the most conservative view in mind - well beyond what the CFIA was asking of us.
• The CFIA and Public Health are continuing their investigation.
Of course the media will extend that, and we expected this.”
Did you expect that more people would die? Did you or do you warn pregnant women about the risks associated with consuming your products?
Also, the Globe and Mail reports in Saturday’s edition that four days before Maple Leaf Foods Inc. warned the public that two varieties of sliced meat may have been contaminated with listeria, the company told its distributors to stop shipping three different products and that federal health authorities were investigating its Toronto plant.
On Aug. 13, Maple Leaf sent a letter to its distributors requesting that, as a precautionary measure, they stop shipping the company's Sure Slice roast beef, corned beef and Black Forest ham because the processing plant in Toronto where the meat was produced was under investigation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
On Aug. 17, Maple Leaf recalled its Sure Slice roast beef and corned beef after the roast beef tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, a food-borne bacterium that can cause serious illness in pregnant women and the elderly.
Then on Aug. 20, after being informed that both the Sure Slice roast beef and corned beef tested positive for listeria in later tests, the company recalled more than 20 deli meats and shut down its Toronto plant for sanitization.
CFIA says they may have some DNA fingerprint results Saturday (its not that hard, some kids figured out half the high-scale fish in New York was bogus). This outbreak is not an early warning system working, it’s a mess. At some point, the politicians and bureaucrats may realize that several people died and dozens are sick unnecessarily. The advice to pregnant women in Canada remains shamefully inadequate.
Seven deaths, dozens of illness investigated in Canadian listeria outbreak: pregnant women reminded of risks
My wife is six months pregnant and she hasn’t had deli meats or smoked salmon or other refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods for six months.
That’s because the bacterium listeria is fairly much everywhere, difficult to control, and grows in the refrigerator. It also causes stillbirths in pregnant women, who are about 20 times more likely to contract the bug than other adults.
.jpg)
The banter in Canada about government or industry taking the lead on food inspection, whether food should be produced in large or small places, is misguided at best and more likely, political opportunism.
There’s a lot of sick people out there and more to be uncovered. Listeria happens, but why did it take the Canadian authorities and industry seven weeks to issue advisories?
It seems part of a pattern of don’t ask, don’t tell, at least until it’s obvious to a whole bunch of others; there are questions about who knew what when.
Epidemiology, the association of something with disease – in this case, deli meats from Maple Leaf – was strong enough for the B.C. Centre For Disease Control to announce a link and a warning, while Ontario stayed mum. Why the difference? These folks are all PhDs in something, what’s going on?
Long before the current outbreak, the advice from the Canadian government about listeria was mushy:
“Although the risk of listeriosis associated with foods from deli counters, such as sliced packaged meat and poultry products, is relatively low, pregnant women and immunosuppressed persons may choose to avoid these foods.”
The advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is clear: Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated.
It has been documented that many pregnant women are not aware of the risks associated with consuming refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods like cold cuts.
Whatever the outcome of the Canadian listeria outbreak, it’s time for Canadian bureaucrats to stop dancing and provide straight advice to consumers. Other countries do it.
5 deaths, 38 illnesses being investigated in Canadian listeria outbreak; sub spokesthingy says consumers are 'hypochrondriacs'
It’s been a bizarre day, answering questions about the U.S. moving ahead with approvals for irradiation on some leafy greens, and Canada moving backwards – really backwards – into political grandstanding while people suffer in an expanding listeria outbreak.
The latest news is that five deaths are now being investigated and dozens of illnesses. If you watch some of the media clips you’ll see that undeserved Canadian smugness shining through – ‘we figured this listeria thing out really fast, it took the Americans six months to figure out salmonella in jalapenos’(Maureen Taylor of CBC pokes some big holes in that theory).
My message was the same: Listeria is a dangerous bug, this is a serious outbreak, there were some serious shortcomings in informing the public and six-months pregnant Amy wouldn’t touch a cold-cut or other refrigerated ready-to-eat food whether it was inspected by government or industry or me.
No one was really interested in the sick people or potential risk.
I did a live interview with CBC Newsworld, the 24 hour news channel that is sometimes referred to as Wallyworld. The producer called to do a pre-interview and asked,
“What are your impressions of this listeria outbreak in Canada.”
I said,
“I’m sorry, I don’t do impressions.”
When it came time to do the CBC National News interview, I was chatting with the reporter, and she said I was in Kansas City, and I said,
“Manhattan. Kansas. Kansas State University.”
“Oh, right.”
“Not University of Kansas. Kansas State. People care about that shit down here. I’m from Ontario, I don’t’ get it, but they really care .”
“And they should. Yeah. Kansas State.”
On CBC National News, it said, ‘Doug Powell, University of Kansas.’
Sigh. …
This is a serious outbreak; there is going to be more dead and sick people, and it’s sorta gross that all the social actors quoted by the media seem to care about is advancing their political agendas. And kissing industry ass and providing pregnant Canadian women with lousy advice about listeria.
Most compassionate award of the day goes to Quiznos spokesman Kyle Holmes in Toronto who said,
"At the end of the day, it (this recall) could happen to anybody and fortunately, it didn't happen to us. Recently, we had a tomato recall and our tomatoes were not affected at all but it was still bad publicity. People are hypochondriacs.”
1 dead, dozens sickened in Canadian listeria outbreak: some questions
Amy is 6 months pregnant: An outbreak of listeria in Canada which has killed one and sickened dozens, is exactly why she hasn’t eaten any cold cuts or smoked salmon for the past six months.
It has been thoroughly documented that many pregnant women are not aware of the risks associated with consuming refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods like cold cuts. Nor does the literary dancing from various Canadian spokesthingies inspire confidence.
About 3 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 17/08, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Maple Leaf Consumer Foods issued an advisory warning the public not to serve or consume Sure Slice brand Roast Beef and Corned Beef because these products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The press statement said,
“There have been no confirmed illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.”
Usually, CFIA press releases say there have been no illnesses associated with the product in question, if that is indeed the case. The “confirmed illness” was a wiggle phrase that Canadian media dutifully reported and then went back to sleep.
Then, about 4 a.m. Wednesday Aug. 20/08, another press release arrived from CFIA, this time announcing that Maple Leaf was voluntarily recalling everything from the suspect Toronto plant and that,
“… a number of the affected products … are part of a listeriosis outbreak investigation.”
About the same time, Maple Leaf Foods put out a press release stating,
“A small number of Sure Slice packaged meat products produced at the Company's Bartor Road, Toronto facility, predominantly for foodservice customers, have tested positive to contain low levels of listeria monocytogenes.”
Always good to get someone else to read stuff to catch grammatical errors, but there may not always be time.
And maybe it wasn’t that small of a contamination, because Wednesday afternoon, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health advised the public that there is an outbreak of Listeriosis in the province.
“In July 2008, routine surveillance conducted by the Ministry detected a marked increase in cases of Listeriosis being reported by Ontario health units.
“As of yesterday, there have been 29 cases associated with the outbreak across 17 health units. Of these, 13 are confirmed cases, and the rest are probable and suspect cases which are under investigation by the local health units. Outbreak associated cases of Listeriosis have also been reported in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec. Ontario is working with the Public Health Agency of Canada and the other provinces in the investigation.”
Yet, as reported by Canwest News Service, health officials in Ontario would not confirm a link between the cases and the recall. Dr. Eleni Galanis with the B.C. Centre For Disease Control said officials in that province had interviewed the two confirmed cases and were satisfied there was sufficient evidence to show a link.
"First, they have the same strain as the outbreak strain that has been identified in Ontario and second they have been exposed to the foods that are under recall. It does seem that they are linked."
Galanis, who said B.C. is also reviewing three more suspected cases, said she was particularly concerned for people with compromised immune systems and pregnant women.
"In pregnant women it could result in still birth," she said.
Despite the words of Dr. Galanis, the story has spun into political nonsense, with the two major political parties throwing barbs at each other, and one University of Guelph type defending small agriculture by saying,
“That's not to say that a small butcher can't make mistakes, but at best, he's going to kill off a few of his neighbours. When you take that same mistake and you put it into a plant that serves millions, the risk is vastly expanded.”
Wow. There’s a whole bunch of sick people out there. That’s where the focus should be. And then, journos should ask, at what point did health authorities make an epidemiological link to Maple Leaf cold cuts? Would some illnesses have been prevented if the warning Sunday morning had been expanded? What is the process used to decide when to issue public warnings? How much evidence is enough?
Oh, and the CFIA advice if you are pregnant or have a weakened immune system?
“Although the risk of listeriosis associated with foods from deli counters, such as sliced packaged meat and poultry products, is relatively low, pregnant women and immunosuppressed persons may choose to avoid these foods.”
Here’s the advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for persons at high risk, such as pregnant women and persons with weakened immune systems:
• Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated until steaming hot.
-Avoid getting fluid from hot dog packages on other foods, utensils, and food preparation surfaces, and wash hands after handling hot dogs, luncheon meats, and deli meats.
• Do not eat soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, and Camembert, blue-veined cheeses, or Mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco, and Panela, unless they have labels that clearly state they are made from pastuerized milk.
• Do not eat refrigerated pâtés or meat spreads. Canned or shelf-stable pâtés and meat spreads may be eaten.
-Do not eat refrigerated smoked seafood, unless it is contained in a cooked dish, such as a casserole. Refrigerated smoked seafood, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, cod, tuna or mackerel, is most often labeled as "nova-style," "lox," "kippered," "smoked," or "jerky." The fish is found in the refrigerator section or sold at deli counters of grocery stores and delicatessens. Canned or shelf-stable smoked seafood may be eaten.
The USDA risk assessment for listeria is ready-to-eat foods is available here
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/97-013F/ListeriaReport.pdf
and one from the World Health Organization is here
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/mra_listeria/en/index.html
Ontario man hospitalized 34 days with listeria from raw milk cheese(?) Wife calls for warning labels
Jockie Loomer-Kruger of Kitchener, Ontario, writes in a letter to the K-W Record today that that she and her husband holidayed in Quebec City this June and delighted in sampling many specialty cheeses made from raw milk. Then the husband became ill.
.jpg)
After 34 days in hospital with listeria infection, her husband came home.
Loomer-Kruger says,
"it may be time that unpasteurized milk and milk products carried the same kinds of warnings seen on cigarette packages, products that contain nuts, or on toys with small choking-hazard parts.
"For example: "WARNING! This raw milk product may contain dangerous bacteria which could cause serious illness or death. At risk are the very young, pregnant women (potential miscarriages or stillbirths), the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, or those with artificial body parts such as heart valves or replaced joints. CONSUME AT YOUR OWN RISK."
Quebec says yes to raw milk cheese - and it's recalled for listeria
On the same day that Quebec moved to permit raw milk cheese aged less than 60 days, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Portuguese Cheese Co. warned the public not to consume Santa Maria brand Queijo de Cabra (fresh goat cheese) because it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Does fresh mean raw? How’s a pregnant woman – or a guy who really doesn’t like to barf -- to know?
No matter, the Montreal Gazette came out Saturday and exclaimed in an editorial that “the trick is to manage the risks carefully, and make sure potential consumers understand the situation. Quebec seems to have taken health concerns into account. Under the new rules, Quebec will require each cheesemaker to know his or her milk supplier personally, and to be knowledgeable about the dairy operation in question.”
Yes I know you. Therefore it is safe.
.jpeg)
Mansel Griffiths, a dairy microbiologist at the University of Guelph and my PhD supervisor (right, not exactly as shown) says the 60-day limit has become arbitrary, since it is no longer a guarantee of destroying pathogens. Still, he believes raw-milk cheese continues to pose health-safety issues over potential pathogens.
Food safety in pregnancy is not simple
Yesterday I enjoyed an aperitif at Houlihan’s with my friend Angélique. Although the conversation was excellent, ordering was complicated for me. I wasn’t supposed to eat at least half of the items offered, and another third of them didn’t sound good to me. Pregnancy food safety guidelines combined with changing tastes and sensitivity to smells make ordering very difficult. On our trip home from Australia on Sunday, for example, I wanted to grab a sandwich at LAX, and because we were at a deli, that left only one choice for me: a chicken Panini. Everything else had unheated deli meat – known to put me at risk for listeria.
At Houlihan’s, I used to enjoy the tuna wontons, but the tuna is only seared and I don’t trust raw fish right now. I couldn’t eat the very appetizing brie starter because the waitress didn’t think it was heated, and the bruschetta that we did share was a big question mark for me. It had goat’s cheese together with the tomato mix. We now know that tomatoes are all supposedly safe from Salmonella, but how safe was the cheese? I take at least a little comfort in knowing that I’ve been fully vaccinated against Hepatitis A thanks to my past wild travels. Angélique and I also shared a spinach and artichoke dip that came with fresh cilantro and scallions sprinkled all over the chips. I grow my own cilantro at home and know how hard it is to keep it clean and out of the snails’ reach …
Finally, very hungry, I just ate and tried to ignore the smaller risk factors. I did my best but I still didn’t feel confident that my food was safe. Who knows or can control what was happening in the kitchen?
For those who want to tell me, and every pregnant woman, how simple it is to eat safely during pregnancy, I beg to differ. See “Listeria warning for pregnant women” for example. Dr. Paul McKeown says, “Simple measures such as ensuring that the fridge is in good working order with the temperature between two and five degrees Celsius, eating food that is well within its use-by date so that harmful bugs will not have had time to grow and practising good general food hygiene will reduce the risk of listeriosis.”
We, as consumers, can reduce some of the risks but we cannot eliminate them. And I find that the more I know about food safety, the more complicated all of this becomes. When you’re hungry and the airline offers you a roll with cheddar and pastrami … and you ask your food safety expert partner, “if I pick off the pastrami, is the sandwich safe to eat and how much cross contamination might have taken place?” and he shrugs … sometimes you have to decide for yourself.
.jpg)
What you can and can't eat when you're pregnant
At our first prenatal visit, which at 8 weeks seemed very late, we finally got some food safety advice from the medical staff. Along with the typical list of foods to avoid (non-pasteurized cheeses, smoked salmon, etc.), the staff member told us if we do eat cold cuts, it is advisable to get them from the deli counter in the supermarket rather than buying the packaged ones from big companies. We were a bit surprised, as this was … exactly wrong advice. The risk of listeria from the deli section is generally higher because it’s difficult to clean the slicers and we do not know how often they are cleaned. While Ben and Doug have been going back and forth about which cheeses are safe for me and Dani to eat (is pasteurized brie OK or not? what about blue-veined cheeses?), I realize I cannot eliminate every risk from my diet. I can, however, minimize some of them. I just slice the brie, put it on Doug’s homemade baguettes, and pop it in the toaster. (It’s also delicious with a sliced beet.) The heat serves as a kill-step in case there is a concern. No, I do not use my meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the soft cheese. I supposed you could if you really are worried, but at that point it’s probably easier to not eat brie.
Although I very much miss smoked salmon -- a staple food before pregnancy, I will not eat it unless it has been thoroughly cooked. Yesterday Salmolux Inc recalled 6140 packages of their Wild Alaskan Smoked Salmon Nova Lox because of a possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Unfortunately, this kind of recall is common in minimally processed ready-to-eat foods. While no one is reported ill from this possible contamination, the risk is one I’m not willing to take.
Deli meats sliced at the deli counter should be consumed within 2 days
I often find myself loitering around the deli counter, watching people order pound after pound of sliced roast beef or shaved turkey breast.
At one point a few years ago, I began chatting with one of the customers and politely commented that was a lot of deli meat she was ordering (really, there was a polite context).She replied it was sandwiches for the kids for the next two weeks.
Uugh.
Yesterday, the Liverpool Daily Post reported U.K. environmental health officers from 42 local authorities purchased 1,127 samples of sliced-at-the-counter cooked meats from food retailers including butchers, delicatessens, market stalls and supermarkets.
Laboratory tests found that 15 per cent of the samples were contaminated with low numbers of listeria on the day of purchase, while 7.3 per cent were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the more serious form of listeria.
Although these were within European Food Safety Standards, when the contaminated samples were tested again after storage for 48 hours in a refrigerator, the L. monocytogenes in some of the contaminated samples had multiplied to unsafe levels.
The tests were carried out at a fridge temperature of six degrees centigrade. However, many domestic fridges are warmer than this, allowing L. monocytogenes to grow faster.
Hugh Lamont, communications manager for the Health Protection Agency North West, said
“We are anxious to ensure that we do not create a scare around freshly sliced cooked meats. We are not saying that people should not buy or eat them, but rather that they should follow ‘use by’ advice where it is given – and consume the products within 48 hours where it is not. We are also reminding food retailers of the advice they should give to customers.”
.jpg)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendations for persons at high risk from listeria, such as pregnant women and persons with weakened immune systems, includes:-Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated until steaming hot
-Avoid getting fluid from hot dog packages on other foods, utensils, and food preparation surfaces, and wash hands after handling hot dogs, luncheon meats, and deli meats
-Do not eat soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, and Camembert, blue-veined cheeses, or Mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco, and Panela, unless they have labels that clearly state they are made from pastuerized milk
-Do not eat refrigerated pâtés or meat spreads. Canned or shelf-stable pâtés and meat spreads may be eaten
-Do not eat refrigerated smoked seafood, unless it is contained in a cooked dish, such as a casserole. Refrigerated smoked seafood, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, cod, tuna or mackerel, is most often labeled as "nova-style," "lox," "kippered," "smoked," or "jerky." The fish is found in the refrigerator section or sold at deli counters of grocery stores and delicatessens. Canned or shelf-stable smoked seafood may be eaten.
The USDA risk assessment for listeria is ready-to-eat foods is available at
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/97-013F/ListeriaReport.pdf
and one from the World Health Organization is at
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/mra_listeria/en/index.html
Sources of listeria contamination for soft-serve ice cream machines
Celebrity blog TMZ.com reported that several sources in the know -- including one pregnant OB/GYN -- tell TMZ that there are "definite" health risks associated with soft-serve ice cream for expectant moms because of Listeria bacteria. Softie machines can be studded with bacteria that can cause all kinds of issues for newborns -- in fact, Down Under, it's pretty much forbidden for preggo women.Baskin Robbin's told TMZ in a statement,
"Our Soft Serve products are continuously monitored by our suppliers, and our pasteurization process is state inspected and certified on a regular basis. The only way Listeria, which has been found in a variety of raw foods, can be found in soft serve would be through improper pasteurization."
Not quite sure about that one. But we'll do some more digging.
Healthinspections.com also picked up on the story, and said they had discovered dirty-machine problems in reviewing health inspection reports for soft serve ice cream shops in past years.
Is free soft-serve ice cream for pregnant women a good idea?
I have no idea why they targeted expectant moms, or why they recruited a pregnant Tori Spelling as spokesthingy.Andrew Reece and I did some quickie research and found the Australians, in particular, may have a problem with this promo.
Soft serve ice cream is on the Australian list of foods pregnant women should avoid. Sanitation with the equipment appears to be an on-going problem.
A 1996 study in Sydney, Australia found 49 of 86 samples of soft serve to have dangerous bacteria levels. Another study in Wisconsin in 2003, found 15 of 22 local soft serve machines at retail food service establishments to have dangerous levels of coliforms and other bacteria. In 2006, Iowa also found a high level of soft serve machines (23%) in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area to have dangerous levels of coliforms and other bacteria. Regular cleaning of machines with soap and sanitizer could reduce the number of bacteria found on the soft serve machines.
Poor hygiene can lead to the spread of foodborne illness through soft serve ice cream. Soft serve ice cream is typically kept at a higher storage temperature than frozen ice creams, which could lead to increased bacterial growth. Ice cream is high in moisture and protein content, which is favorable for bacteria to grow. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has its own publication warning of such risks.
The risk appears minimal with good sanitation -- although our research was limited and forced by time constraints. A reader asked, would I take my pregnant wife for free B&R soft serve ice cream?
No.
Processor says New Zealand listeria due to bad luck, media boredom or staff error
.jpg)
Today, Kornman said a staff member could have introduced listeria to the factory by failing to follow hygiene procedures in the company's "high care" area, where the packaged, cold meats were sliced.Kornman also said the company had been caught in the crossfire of criticism directed toward some district health boards, and that he knew of other companies which had been caught out several times in similar situations but had never been subjected to the same media scrutiny.
Kornman noted the company had been supplying the meat for more than 10 years and it was the first issue it had in that time.
Listeria contaminated milk may have infected 1300 Bulgarian children
Authorities said the milk contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria was produced by Euromeat and Milk EOOD, which were sanctioned in the end of January over not meeting hygienic requirements.
.jpg)
Listeria found in pasteurized milk
Officials today announced that the pasteurization process at the dairy was found to be working properly and that contamination must have occurred after the milk was pasteurized.
Doctor Alfred DeMaria, the state director of communicable disease control, says the dairy appeared to do everything right.
The dairy continues to suspend operations and work with officials to pinpoint the source of the deadly listeria. Continue Reading...
Two dead from listeria in Massachusetts
.jpg)
The Department of Public Health has identified four cases of the listerioris. 2 of the victims have died. The cases occurred in June, October and two in November. The four cases involved three elderly residents and a pregnant woman from Worcester county.DNA fingerprinting conducted by the State Laboratory Institute showed that the bacteria causing these infections came from a common source.
Whittier Farms has agreed to suspend operations and distribution until a source of contamination is identified.
Brand names produced at Whittier Dairy include Whittier, Schultz, Balance Rock, Spring Brook, and Maple.
Four people had pregnancy complications after getting Listeria
.jpg)
The story says that two of the pregnant women miscarried after they contracted the infection. In a third case, the pregnant mom delivered early, but she and her baby are doing well. The probable case involves another pregnant woman who also lost her baby. All four had consumed soft cheeses from a variety of sources.State Epidemiologist Dr. Jeff Engel said, "This is a tragedy, which could have been avoided. Listeriosis can be prevented by avoiding unpasteurized milk and other potentially contaminated food, especially among vulnerable people."
State Laboratory of Public Health testing showed different strains of the bacteria were involved and that one product doesn't seem to be the blame, and that's why public health officials issued a general Listeria warning.
Norwegian hospital liable for listeria deaths
Food Safety Authority section leader Christoffer Nilsen told the newspaper Nationen that the hospital has the responsibility for food safety for everything they serve, and that such cheeses should not be given to pregnant women because of the risk of listeria.
.jpg)
"Therefore this is a serious breach of the rules which the managing director of the hospital must take responsibility for."Rikshospitalet University Hospital strategy director Stein Vaaler was cited as saying that the FSA has been sent a report about the listeria outbreak but would not comment on the statements by the Food Safety Authority.
Hospitals should know better, but it is well documented that many pregnant women are not told about such food safety risks by their doctors.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendations for persons at high risk, such as pregnant women and persons with weakened immune systems, includes:
-Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated until steaming hot
-Avoid getting fluid from hot dog packages on other foods, utensils, and food preparation surfaces, and wash hands after handling hot dogs, luncheon meats, and deli meats
-Do not eat soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, and Camembert, blue-veined cheeses, or Mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco, and Panela, unless they have labels that clearly state they are made from pastuerized milk
-Do not eat refrigerated pâtés or meat spreads. Canned or shelf-stable pâtés and meat spreads may be eaten
-Do not eat refrigerated smoked seafood, unless it is contained in a cooked dish, such as a casserole. Refrigerated smoked seafood, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, cod, tuna or mackerel, is most often labeled as "nova-style," "lox," "kippered," "smoked," or "jerky." The fish is found in the refrigerator section or sold at deli counters of grocery stores and delicatessens. Canned or shelf-stable smoked seafood may be eaten.
The USDA risk assessment for listeria is ready-to-eat foods is available here
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/97-013F/ListeriaReport.pdf
and one from the World Health Organization is here
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/mra_listeria/en/index.html
Raw milk goat cheese leads to listeria
Laboratory tests on the raw milk cheese from the Ulverton coop revealed the presence of listeria.
The ministry said the dairy coop does not have the required permit to make cheese destined for consumers and that people should not eat cheese from producers who are not licensed. Only raw milk cheese produced in licensed factories can be consumed safely.
As Amy noted in June, some of the major French producers have switched to using heated milk to reduce the risk of disease. Lactilis’ spokesperson, Luc Morelon said that although they recognize the importance of Camembert traditions, they’re making the change,
“[b]ecause consumer safety is paramount, and we cannot guarantee it 100 per cent. We cannot accept the risk of seeing our historic brands disappearing because of an accident in production." In response to his critics Morelon added, “I don't want to risk sending any more children to hospital. It's as simple as that."
Scientist says listeria caused by consumer mishandling; company recalls dip anyway
In response to a recent University of Wollongong study which found that 57 per cent of the pregnant Australian woman surveyed were not aware of foods they should avoid to prevent listeriosis, Food Standards Australia New Zealand's (FSANZ) Chief Medical Advisor, Dr Bob Boyd, said,"listeriosis is usually caused by people at risk eating food that has not been stored or handled properly once the food has been produced or cooked.
"Listeria bacteria are found widely in nature and may be present in pre-prepared uncooked foods or pre-cooked foods which have been kept for some time after they have cooled down.
"If you or anyone in your household is pregnant, immuno-compromised or elderly, it is important you reduce your risk by taking a few simple precautions. For example: by eating only freshly prepared and well-washed food, following good food hygiene practice such as washing and drying hands, by cooking foods thoroughly, and by refrigerating leftovers immediately and keeping them no more than a day. …
"I would like to remind health professionals of the dangers of Listeria and to make sure they have supplies of the FSANZ brochure on Listeria."
OzFoodNet data show that during 2006 in Australia there were eight Listeria infections in pregnant women with two deaths out of the eight babies and that there were 51 Listeria infections in the elderly or immuno-compromised with 7 deaths.
This is a serious issue, one that Christina and JLo, above, should know about, but pointing to a brochure is not enough. Information on any food safety issue needs to be rapid, reliable, relevant and repeated.
About the same time as Dr. Boyd's comments, Coles Group Supermarkets voluntarily recalled You’ll Love Coles basil pesto dip (150g) from all Coles, Bi-Lo and Pick and Pay stores across Australia after testing by the manufacturer revealed the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes.
Customers are encouraged to check in their homes to ensure they do not have any of the affected product. Customers should return any affected product to their nearest Coles, Bi-Lo and Pick and Pay store for a full refund.
A quick check of the CSPI outbreak database reveals that many listeria outbreaks happened at point of sale. It's a processing issue; yes, consumer storage can contribute to the problem, bt in the absence of data -- none was presented by Dr. Boyd -- why taint a good message with a dubious claim about how listeria is primarily the consumer's fault?
Cheese should not be made in a bathtub
The illegal soft cheese products are known to cause serious illness such as listeria, salmonella or E. coli.
The 375 pounds of seized illegal cheese included panela, queso fresco and queso oxaca varieties, the CDFA says. It was a significant find, the department says.
Infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are the most susceptible. Expectant mothers should be especially guarded, as the listeria organism can cause miscarriages.
Listeria kills 2, sickens 12 in Norway
.jpg)
Aftenposten reported Friday that two patients at the National Hospital in Oslo, Norway, died as a result of an infection linked to listeria and another 12 have been sickened since Oct. 1.Hospital officials were cited as saying the source of the bacteria has not yet been pinpointed, but they said it may have come from contaminated cold food, possibly cheese. All refrigerated food at the hospital has been discarded, but officials said new cases may still arise as the bacteria's incubation period can last for up to a month.
Pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems are especially susceptible to listeria. A recent Australian study found that over half of expectant mothers received no information about the risks associated with listeria and certain foods.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendations for persons at high risk, such as pregnant women and persons with weakened immune systems, includes:
-Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated until steaming hot.
-Avoid getting fluid from hot dog packages on other foods, utensils, and food preparation surfaces, and wash hands after handling hot dogs, luncheon meats, and deli meats.
-Do not eat soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, and Camembert, blue-veined cheeses, or Mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco, and Panela, unless they have labels that clearly state they are made from pastuerized milk.
-Do not eat refrigerated pâtés or meat spreads. Canned or shelf-stable pâtés and meat spreads may be eaten.
-Do not eat refrigerated smoked seafood, unless it is contained in a cooked dish, such as a casserole. Refrigerated smoked seafood, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, cod, tuna or mackerel, is most often labeled as "nova-style," "lox," "kippered," "smoked," or "jerky." The fish is found in the refrigerator section or sold at deli counters of grocery stores and delicatessens. Canned or shelf-stable smoked seafood may be eaten.
Listeria kills 2, sickens 12 in Norway
.jpg)
Aftenposten reported Friday that two patients at the National Hospital in Oslo, Norway, died as a result of an infection linked to listeria and another 12 have been sickened since Oct. 1.Hospital officials said the source of the bacteria has not yet been pinpointed, but it may have come from contaminated cold food, possibly cheese. All refrigerated food at the hospital has been discarded, but officials said new cases may still arise as the bacteria's incubation period can last for up to a month.
Pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems are especially susceptible to listeria. A recent Australian study found that over half of expectant mothers received no information about the risks associated with listeria and certain foods.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendations for persons at high risk, such as pregnant women and persons with weakened immune systems, includes:
-Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated until steaming hot.
-Avoid getting fluid from hot dog packages on other foods, utensils, and food preparation surfaces, and wash hands after handling hot dogs, luncheon meats, and deli meats.
-Do not eat soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, and Camembert, blue-veined cheeses, or Mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco, and Panela, unless they have labels that clearly state they are made from pastuerized milk.
-Do not eat refrigerated pâtés or meat spreads. Canned or shelf-stable pâtés and meat spreads may be eaten.
-Do not eat refrigerated smoked seafood, unless it is contained in a cooked dish, such as a casserole. Refrigerated smoked seafood, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, cod, tuna or mackerel, is most often labeled as "nova-style," "lox," "kippered," "smoked," or "jerky." The fish is found in the refrigerator section or sold at deli counters of grocery stores and delicatessens. Canned or shelf-stable smoked seafood may be eaten.
