Food Poisoning, Foodborne Illness Information and Research : International Food Safety Network : BarfBlog

When Canadian bureaucrats send out a food safety press release for no apparent reason other than to remind Canadians of something it usually means there is an outbreak going on.

Once again, it’s raw sprouts, and it’s not like it’s sprout season or something (unlike the often terrible turkey food safety advice the surfaces at Thanksgiving).

Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are reminding Canadians that raw or undercooked sprouts should not be eaten by children, the elderly, pregnant women or those with weakened immune systems.

Sprouts, such as alfalfa and mung beans, are a popular choice for Canadians as a low-calorie, healthy ingredient for many meals. Onion, radish, mustard and broccoli sprouts, which are not to be confused with the actual plant or vegetable, are also common options.

These foods, however, may carry harmful bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7, which can lead to serious illness.

Fresh produce can sometimes be contaminated with harmful bacteria while in the field or during storage or handling. This is particularly a concern with sprouts. Many outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli infections have been linked to contaminated sprouts. The largest recent outbreak in Canada was in the fall of 2005, when more than 648 cases of Salmonella were reported in Ontario.
 

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There are more people tragically sick with E. coli O157:H7 from what looks like another petting zoo.

But this would be especially tragic – or hopelessly sad -- if proven.

In 1999, 159 people, mainly children, were thought to be sickened with E. coli O157:H7 traced to goat and sheep at the 1999 Western Fair in London, Ontario. That’s in Canada.

Scott Weese, a clinical studies professor at the University of Guelph (that’s also in Canada) and colleagues reported in the July 2007 edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases that in a study of 36 petting zoos in Ontario between May and October of 2006, they observed infrequent hand washing, food sold and consumed near the animals, and children being allowed to drink bottles or suck on pacifiers in the petting area.

There’s been several outbreaks linked to petting zoos and state fairs in the U.K., Vancouver and Denver; and that’s just this year. A complete table of outbreaks is available at http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/uploads/file/Petting%20zoo%20outbreaks%20chart%20bites(1).pdf.

Now, 10 years later, initial reports are emerging that four people who visited the Western Fair Agri-plex (that’s in London, Ontario, Canada) sometime between September 11 and 20, 2009, have been infected with the same strain of E. coli O157:H7.

The health unit is asking anyone who developed severe diarrhea after visiting the Western Fair to contact them at (519) 663-5317 ext 2330.

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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.

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.
 

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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.

"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.
 

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Stephen Colbert’s fear of bears – usually listed as the biggest threat to America in his Threat Down segment – has made it to the blogsphere.

I’ve made it a point to say in my talks lately, when I talk about food safety, I’m talking about food that doesn’t make people barf. Food safety means lots of things to lots of people, but I’m focused on the microbes that sicken up to 30 per cent of all citizens of all countries every year (that’s what the World Health Organization says).

“If you plan on venturing into the wilderness on a camping or hiking trip, you need to be prepared to deal with potentially dangerous wildlife. Bears in particular need to be respected and avoided. One of the easiest ways to avoid bears is to be careful with storing and preparing food.”

It’s not just Colbert. On a family trip when I was, oh, about 13-years-old, we spent a couple of nights in Banff, Alberta, and were visited by a bear that emptied the cooler.

"Be aware of the necessary food storage and cooking precautions while camping. Do everything you can to keep food odors away from your camp. Taking these precautions is the easiest way to prevent a bear encounter."

So respect the bears (especially in the video below, which involves Canadians, kids, hockey and bears).

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Bureaucrats think they’re so clever, parsing their words just so rather than saying, this is what we know, this is what we don’t know, this is what we’re doing to figure things out.

On Aug. 9, 2009, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced that it and Sunsprout Natural Foods were warning the public not to consume certain varieties of Sprouts Alive and Sun Sprout brands that contain onion sprouts because they may be contaminated with Salmonella and that, “There are no confirmed illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.”

The “no confirmed illness bit” is apparently CFIA code for, we have epidemiological evidence there’s a bunch of sick people but we’re awaiting further tests.

The sick have surfaced.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported yesterday they are investigating an outbreak of Salmonella Cubana involving 12 cases across two provinces (7 in Ontario and 5 in Alberta).

Among the 12 persons with known illness onset dates, illnesses began between April  15, 2009  and July 26, 2009.

A few of the people who became ill have reported eating sprouts.  PHAC is working with local/provincial public health authorities and CFIA to gather more specific information on the type of sprouts and to try to determine the source of illness in the remaining cases.

Why can’t bureaucrats at the alphabet soup of agencies – CFIA, HC, PHAC – just keep things straightforward? Maybe even explain the protocols for informing the public of health risks?

(The images are from a video that Christian and Heather put together a few years ago as the invitation to a Christmas party for my lab. Sprouts and raw milk. Yum.)
 

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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.

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.

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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

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.

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,

“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.

listeria.cdn.final.report.jul.09.pdf

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Raise a butter tart and Molson Export – or Labatt Crystal if you’re into the skid stuff – it’s Canada Day, the celebration of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country of four provinces.

The N.Y. Times has a fun piece of famous ex-pats saying what they miss most about Canada – original Coffee Crisp chocolate bars seems to be the best thing folks can conjure up – but more importantly to some, the new Canadian organic food logo went into effect (below, left, exactly as shown).

Organic is a production standard. Doesn’t mean anything about quality, taste or safety. It’s a marketing concept, but now they have their own label.

All produce will have to be completely organic to be stamped with the logo, while products with multiple ingredients must have 95 per cent organic content.

Farmers who want their produce to carry the new "Canada Organic" label have to apply in writing for certification. The application must include:

* The name of the agricultural product.
* The substances used in its production.
* The manner in which those substances are used.

The logo will also be used on USDA-certified organic products imported from the United States.

Between 70 and 80 per cent of all organic products available in Canada are imported primarily from the U.S., according to government figures.

My group has written extensively about organic and conventional food safety – it’s just not on. There are good farmers and bad farmers, conventional, organic and otherwise.

But this logo? I sent it to a few of my colleagues and asked them what they thought – all the results were too pornographic to publish here. Maybe on twitter.
 

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Yesterday, I made fun of Campbell soup boss Doug Conant who said he wanted Canadian-style food safety regulation in the U.S.

Here’s an example of the lightening speed with which Canadian bureaucracy works:

In 2002, Health Canada and the CFIA began consulting on proposed regulatory changes for bottled water and prepackaged ice in a document called Making it Clear - Renewing the Federal Regulations on Bottled Water: A Discussion Paper.

During the consultation, several significant technical challenges with the proposal were identified including: how to identify the source of the bottled water and the specific microbiological, chemical and radiological requirements listed in the proposed amendments.

Since that time, Health Canada and the CFIA have been consulting further with stakeholders to identify how to address these specific issues. A summary of consultations and comments received on proposed revisions to food and drug regulations on prepackaged water and ice up until November 2008 has been posted as a next step in this process to develop regulations.

This was published today. That’s seven years. And they’re still years from finishing.
 

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Canada's governor general Michaelle Jean (below, right), the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II – ‘hellooooo little people ‘ -- ate a slaughtered seal's raw heart today in a show of support to the country's seal hunters.

Hundreds of Inuit at a community festival gathered Monday as Jean knelt above a pair of seal carcasses and used a traditional ulu blade to slice the meat off the skin. After cutting through the flesh, Jean turned to the woman beside her and asked: "Could I try the heart?"

'It's like sushi'

A spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said, "No comment; it's too bizarre to acknowledge.”
 

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Someone finally found the H1N1 swine flu in pigs.

After I bashed them for allotting resources for hog surveillance when little evidence for such a need existed, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization is now applauding Canada for spotting the flu in a herd of Alberta swine.

However, a person—not other swine—sickened the pigs.

healthzone.ca reports that a carpenter at an Alberta hog farm went to work on April 14 after a visit to Mexico and may have brought the H1N1 flu with him. Within a couple weeks, about a tenth of the 2,200-hog operation showed signs of the flu.

The affected hogs were quarantined and all are recovering or have already recovered. Only one other person who has had contact with the pigs shares signs of illness.

Across Canada, however, canada.com reports that another 15 cases of H1N1 flu were confirmed last week, bringing the country’s total to 34. One case was a student at Beairsto Elementary School, which responded by closing for a week.

Additionally, the story reports,

“The federal government will launch a public awareness campaign Friday to inform Canadians about the swine flu as the number of cases in Canada climbed to 34 and the number of worldwide cases surpassed 270.”

I hope these messages for the public contain more information than “you can’t get the flu from food,” which is about all I’ve heard so far.

In a press release in the US, the director of science and technology for the National Pork Producers Council, Dr. Jennifer Greiner, was quoted as saying,

"People cannot get the flu from eating or handling pork. The flu is a respiratory illness, it's not a food-borne illness."

Then can someone please explain to their country how to manage these respiratory risks?

Let’s talk more about what the risks are than what they aren’t.
 

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As easy as it may be to assume, there’s no evidence that the swine flu spreading through Mexico and beyond is sickening pigs now.

The World Health Organization reports that illnesses in Mexico are climbing close to 1,000 with more than 50 deaths—all of which are human. Eighteen of those cases were laboratory confirmed by labs in Canada.

Though, as a precaution, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is “asking swine producers, veterinarians and labs to increase their vigilance in monitoring for and reporting swine disease.”

Is that a better use of resources than increasing monitoring activities of flu-like symptoms in humans?

The Public Health Agency of Canada website says of human swine influenza, “Sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred, however these are usually caused by direct exposure to pigs,” and, “Human to human transmission of swine influenza has been documented.”

Are Canadians getting the whole story? Is this the best way to protect public health?

In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified 20 human cases of swine flu in several states, and an investigation website outlines what is known about the virus to this point (it’s susceptible to certain antiviral drugs) and the steps being taken to find out more.

This information gives the public a better picture of the possible risks to their health and how those risks are being managed.

The interested public can generally handle more, not less, information about food safety.
 

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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.

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.

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?
 

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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.

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.

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?

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According to CanWest News, Canadian government officials, based on internal documents, can't agree on how long to scrub.

Correspondence between senior Ontario and federal bureaucrats obtained under an access to information request reveal disparities in hand washing advice, as discovered by an Ontario health official who surveyed government health websites looking for advice.

The inconsistencies prompted her to muse, "maybe we should have a National consensus meeting on how to wash your hands."

No need to file pondersome information requests. A google search reveals all kinds of differing advice  on how best to wash hands. We’ve come up with our own, but are constantly revising as more information becomes available.

The steps in proper handwashing, as concluded from the preponderance of available evidence, are:

• wet hands with water;
• use enough soap to build a good lather;
• scrub hands vigorously, creating friction and reaching all areas of the fingers and hands for at least 10 seconds to loosen pathogens on the fingers and hands;
• rinse hands with thorough amounts of water while continuing to rub hands; and,
• dry hands with paper towel.

Water temperature is not a critical factor -- water hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria and viruses would scald hands -- so use whatever is comfortable.

The friction from rubbing hands with paper towels helps remove additional bacteria and viruses.

Next time you visit a bathroom that is missing soap, water or paper towels, let someone in charge know. And next time you see someone skip out on the suds in the bathroom, look at them and say, “Dude, wash your hands!”

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About every 10 years I, briefly, become cool, at least in my own mind.

In high school in the late 1970s, I played air bass in an air band called Tone Deaf for one memorable performance. I should have stuck with it; 30 years later, kids are shelling out millions to play air whatever in Guitar Hero.

In 1991, Nirvana came out with grunge, Canadian Neil Young was the godfather and my closet of plaid shirts otherwise known as Kenora dinner jackets was all the rage.

Today, Canadian Press predicted that in 2009, products from apples to chicken will carry codes purchasers can enter into a website for sourcing details. When I started working on the on-farm food safety program with the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers back in 1998, I said, hey, you growers are doing this great food safety stuff, you should at least put a url on those stickers so those shoppers who want to know can find out all about your great food safety program.

Guess it wasn’t cool enough.

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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:

• 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.

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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.

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.

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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."
 

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The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit is now reporting a total of 146 cases of which 24 are lab confirmed for E. coli O157:H7, linked to dining at a Harvey’s Restaurant on Algonquin Avenue in North Bay, Ontario.

Included are cases being investigated by 6 other health units in Ontario, and the people who are ill range from 1 to 90 years old. Some are in hospital receiving treatment, while most are recovering at home. 

“The Health Unit is screening staff at the restaurant located in North Bay.  This includes collecting samples and conducting interviews,” reports Dr. Catherine Whiting, Medical Officer of Health for the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit.  Health Unit staff continue to collect information and analyze data to ensure that all possible sources of E. coli O157:H7 are being investigated.  City of North Bay emergency crews also conducted extra testing on the municipal water last weekend.  Lab test results confirm that drinking water is not the source.
 

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Spirits were high Saturday night as the Toronto Maple Leafs opened their at-home hockey season night to the rhythms of the Smashing Pumpkins.

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:

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.”

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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.

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.
 

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The Public Health Agency of Canada, still smarting from criticism over its absence  in the listeria outbreak, decided to show up Sunday night and advise Canadians about melamine, and a North American-wide Salmonella Poona outbreak

In Canada to date, there have been 6 cases spread across Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia with the same genetic fingerprint, and 14 other suspected cases in Ontario.  No one has been hospitalized so far.  There have been 48 cases reported in the U.S.

The cause of the potential outbreak is not known at this time.  Provincial laboratories and the Agency's National Microbiology Laboratory are conducting ongoing analyses to determine if other Salmonella Poona cases share the same genetic fingerprint as those identified thus far.  The number of cases associated with this outbreak may increase as the investigation continues. … The Agency will keep Canadians informed as new information becomes available.

Salmonella Poona has been associated with outbreaks in cantaloupes and turtles. Given the outbreak of Salmonella – strain not yet identified in U.S. reports -- involving pet turtles and up to 100 Americans announced last week, it’s probably the same outbreak.

But with the Public Health Agency of Canada who knows.

Don't kiss turtles.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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.
 

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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.”
 

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Scientists and journalists have a couple of things in common -- at least that's what I was told all those years ago.

Both require the ability to ask the right question. And both have to sell the same idea at least three times to make a living.

Yesterday, Bob Brackett, senior vice president and chief science and regulatory affairs officer for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, wrote in the Denver Post that "no other country in the world can claim a safer food supply than the United States."

Except that a couple of Canadian researchers at the University of Regina have done just that, issuing a report last week which purports to rank 17 industrialized countries.

The problem is, based on what is publicly available, it's impossible to tell how countries were ranked on various scores.

For example, the report says,

"Canada would be considered as one of the world’s leading countries in relation to consumer affairs in food safety. In terms of incidences of reported illness by food-borne pathogens, Canada is (in) the normal range since it has the incidence between 5,000 and 15,000 per 100,000 persons. Even if Canada has more incidences, it has a decreasing trend of late, which means that all levels of the government had begun to control the situation."

Based on a population of just over 33 million, that means 1.65 -- 4.95 million reported illnesses by foodborne pathogens, I'm assuming per year. Nowhere near that many cases of foodborne illness are actually reported. And the best guess on the actual incidence of foodborne illness in Canada is 11-13 million cases per year, slightly higher that the World Health Organization's estimate of 30 per cent of citizens in developed countries getting sick from the food and water they consume each year.

The report authors also claim,

"Canada was also rated as a 'progressive' country based on its food safety education programs for consumers. Unlike other countries, the level of cooperation among the different levels of government in the country is significant and most programs target all segments of the population."

Apparently, no effort was made to assess whether such information was accurate.

Canada finished fifth, and the U.S. came in seventh. The United Kingdom had the highest ranking of the 17 countries studied. Make mine piping hot.

Who has the safest food in the world? Wrong question.

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