Farmscape Article 3088  February 1, 2009

In August of 2008 Maple Leaf Foods initiated the largest recall in the company's history after products from one of its Toronto processed meats plants were linked to a nation-wide listeriosis outbreak.

The contamination, which was traced to a meat slicing machine at the plant, affected three skews of deli products and resulted in the recall of 191 products manufactured at the plant from January through to August.
The outbreak resulted in 20 deaths, as reported by the Public Health Agency of Canada, and 53 confirmed cases case of illness.

Both Industry and Government Respond
In response Maple Leaf closed the plant, initiated an immediate recall and began a full review of its food safety protocols. A joint Health Canada-Canadian Food inspection Agency (CFIA) working group, formed in response to the outbreak, has also proposed a series of regulatory changes.

Listeria Related Illness Rare
The organism responsible for the outbreak, listeria monocytogenes, is one six species of listeria and the only one that causes disease in humans or animals.

Dr. Rick Holley, a food safety and food microbiology professor with the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, notes the organism is widely distributed in the environment and will be found on the grass, in the soil and in association with animals as well as plant materials.
“It is an unusual organism in as much as, unlike many of the other organisms that cause human illness, this one will grow at refrigerator temperature and it doesn't mind salt concentrations that are used in manufacture of processed meat products and it can grow in vacuum packages. It doesn't need air to grow. So all of those things contribute to its ability to cause problems in the processed meats industry.”

“In most cases it (listeriosis) doesn't require hospitalization,” Dr. Holley notes.
However, he explains, in a certain proportion of the population suffering from chronic illnesses where the immune system doesn't function well, people who are undergoing irradiation or chemotherapy, people who suffer from sclerosis of the liver or have other immune system compromising illnesses face a greater risk.

Maple Leaf Commits to Fixing the Problem
Maple Leaf vice-president government and industry relations Rory McAlpine recalls, “Maple Leaf's first response was to take immediate accountability for what had happened, for the tragedy where its products were linked to human illness and death, and to commit to fixing the problem.”
He says the priority was to put consumer interest first and try to maintain public trust by implementing pro-active, transparent and fact based communications.

“We had to firstly execute the recall itself which was extremely complex and involved national distribution so it was a challenge to do that quickly. We did so in partnership with our retail and food service customers. Beyond actually successfully executing the recall, we had to implement a number of changes or improvements. We had excellent systems of food safety control but, given the pervasiveness of listeria, we learned that there were new ways and better ways that we could mitigate that risk. We've done that through much enhanced protocols focusing particularly on the way we monitor the plant environment for risk and how we respond if and when we find positive presence of listeria.”

New Food Safety Officer Appointed
Maple Leaf has also hired a new chief food safety officer, is implementing a number of protocols focussed on better food safety control and is working in partnership with industry and government to ensure high standards of best practice and regulatory oversight.

Federal Working Group Recommends Regulatory Change
Health Canada is responsible for setting safety standards for food products produced in Canada while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is responsible for ensuring those standards are correctly implemented. The joint working group has come up with a series of preliminary recommendations for regulatory changes intended to reduce the risk of food becoming contaminated by listeria. Public comments on the draft proposal are now being evaluated and the working group expects to have its final report completed by March.

“The working group has come up with different factors that are being proposed as components in controlling the risk posed by listeria in ready-to-eat meat products,” says CFIA national meat processing specialist and working group member Dr. Suzanne Duguette.

“These include the mandatory testing by operators of food contact surfaces for listeria species or listeria monocytogenes as well as making product testing based on risk presented, by products, applicable to all federally registered establishments. There will be mandatory reporting of any unsatisfactory results for those two types of testing as well as specifications in methodologies in lab procedures. In addition to that CFIA will increase its level of product testing and will reinstate food contact surface testing for listeria monocytogenes.”

Maple Leaf Expresses Concern Over Recommendations
McAlpine notes Maple Leaf has many concerns with the working group's recommendations.
“The U.S. approaches it based on the risk profile of plants in terms of frequency of testing and the degree of regulatory oversight. That is risk based food safety management which, of course, is the foundation for HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) and everything else.”

McAlpine stresses, “There should not be too much emphasis on finished product testing. What we see in the policy now is that it would overly emphasize finished product testing.

This is very disruptive and is not best practice based on a lot of experience in other countries. The testing frequencies are above U.S. practice in the policy as it's proposed which creates a real competitive issue. We question how imports are going to be held to the same standard as we're going to be subjected to as a meat industry in Canada.”

Dr. Holley agrees. He believes initiatives undertaken by the U.S. government to increase the frequency of end product testing represents a less than positive approach to dealing with a food safety issue and he fears the Canadian government may move in the same direction.

“You can't test safety into end products. You can't inspect safety into products. You have to build it in.”

Existing Food Safety Systems Appropriate
Dr. Holley is convinced the food safety systems that the food processing plants use, which are approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, should be adequate to address the issues associated with listeria monocytogenes in the final products and prevent the organism from ever getting in there in the first place.
“We just can't test enough product to give us a good statistically valid idea of whether or not the organisms are likely to be causing a problem in the products. What we must do is take a pro-active approach and use the safety systems that we all know about and make sure that they're working properly and then monitor.”

He  concedes testing has a role to play in terms of validating the food safety system but shouldn't be used as a demonstration or be interpreted as meaning that since one sample is negative that all of the samples are negative or that, for that matter, one sample is positive and all of the samples are therefore positive.
“The emphasis really should not be placed on end product testing. The emphasis should be placed on the further development of very comprehensive food safety systems that are used appropriately and monitored appropriately.”

Cooperative HACCP Based Approach Called For
McAlpine is also concerned with what he considers a harsh regulatory response to listeria positive test results on food contact surfaces.
“A punitive approach is not going to encourage best practice and will tend to cause

operators to want to hide what is out there and that's not what we want. There is a proposed requirement to use only accredited labs and conventional test methods as opposed to rapid test methods. That's very onerous, costly in terms of time and dollars and not consistent with U.S. practice.”

He believes the policy should reaffirm the principles of HACCP and encourage

strengthened science based strategies that define outcomes but that are flexible in the

methods for achieving them.

Harmonization of Federal and Provincial Standards Called For
McAlpine notes Maple Leaf also wants to see a harmonization of federal and provincial meat standards.
“We just don't believe we can tolerate in Canada a two tier system. We know that's not popular with our colleagues that are provincially licensed in this industry but we don't think consumers are prepared to accept a situation like this much longer let alone our trade partners.”

It's all about Consumer Confidence
“It's all about, as a food company, trying to restore confidence,” McAlpine concludes.
“At the end of the day it's about whether the consumer comes back one by one to the product. You have to continually demonstrate that you're on this path and that you’re going to reassure that consumer and satisfy them that, if they make the purchase, it's going to be safe.”
He notes, the whole sliced meats category has suffered, not just Maple Leaf. Consumer confidence was shaken in many competitors products as well.

McAlpine acknowledges, “The speed and extent of our recovery will be strengthened, we believe, by our actions but only time will tell and only the decision of each individual consumer will bare that out.”

Staff Farmscape.Ca