Our Journey to Food Safety Leadership | Our Journey to Food Safety Leadership

There is a heightened awareness of food safety and Listeria with the Siena Foods recall and link to listeriosis illnesses in Ontario. Health Departments are more vigilant and better equipped to track and identify food-borne illnesses like listeriosis, and stronger government regulations implemented over a year ago require a lot more testing, which helps track the source of a problem when it occurs. These improvements mean safer food, and also mean there’s a lot more awareness and action when there is a problem.

We at Maple Leaf Foods do not have many of the facts about the current recall and outbreak investigation at Siena Foods, as they are not affiliated with our company, but we do have a deep understanding of the food safety changes that have occurred broadly within the industry and with government over the last 18 months.

People would be wrong to take from this that the industry hasn’t changed as a result of what went wrong at Maple Leaf Foods after the listeriosis outbreak that caused the death of 22 people. Tough new regulations were put in place. Food companies have had to come up a learning curve very quickly. We aren’t where we want to be, but we are better than we were. Government needs to make sure that the regulations are strictly enforced, and that we have enough inspectors, with the right skills, to accomplish this.

For our part, Maple Leaf made a deep commitment to becoming a global leader in food safety as a result of what occurred in August, 2008 and the Listeriosis illnesses and tragic deaths that were linked to our products. 

You have read on this blog and in other news from our company how our processes, systems, people and technologies have changed to ensure that an event such as what happened in August 2008 will not happen again. Here’s some of the changes we have made…

Transparency: every day there is a senior management team meeting to discuss Listeria environmental testing results from the previous day from every one of our 26 ready to eat (RTE) facilities. We probe any positive test results and implement quarantine procedures immediately if there is a positive on a food contact surface.

Testing: our environmental testing program is one of the more aggressive surveillance testing plans. We generated over 125,000 routine Listeria test results for our facilities in 2009, over twice what would be required by regulations for our facilities. The current percentage positive rate is less than 0.5%, which is consistent with best practice in North American meat plants.   In addition to routine environmental Listeria testing, our teams conduct thousands of investigative microbiological tests annually to gain a better understanding of our process.

Training: we have trained our people on our new food safety procedures and raised their awareness and understanding of their role in producing food safely. We have recently launched a new adult learning interactive training device being piloted in 5 plants that will allow managers and line supervisors to deliver food safety to front line employees in an interactive learning setting.

Producing Safer Food:  we are adding simple ingredients to our prepared meat products that have been scientifically proven to prevent listeria growth. Their scientific names are potassium lactate and sodium diacetate, and result from the natural fermentation of renewable food sources like corn. 

Meeting Global Standards:  we have begun a process to have all of our 76 processing facilities certified by an independent third party to food safety standards that have been set by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). We want to be measured against the best in the world… and meet this standard.

 Sharing What We Learn: Maple Leaf has committed to openly sharing what we’ve learned, how we’re changing and global best practices with others in the industry. In the fall of 2009 we held our first annual Food Safety Symposium with over 100 participants including competitors, government and scientists. In 2010 our theme is the role of the Global Food Safety Initiative in supporting safe food.

The entire industry is impacted when the safety of our food supply is questioned. Even though Siena Foods is a competitor, we are taking this latest Listeria issue very seriously, including an open offer to share our learnings with them. The latest listeriosis cases in Ontario absolutely reaffirm the need to stay vigilant, for the Canadian government to strongly enforce the tough regulations they have put in place, and for food companies to implement best practices, share our learning, and continue to raise standards across the industry.

“Creating a high performing food safety organization” is one of the pillars of Maple Leaf’s Food Safety Strategy.  We are committed to building a world-class food safety and quality team to ensure we have  strong  technical and scientific expertise throughout Maple Leaf.

I am pleased to welcome Peter Slade to my team as Senior Director, Food Safety Technical Affairs.  Peter is an internationally recognized food safety leader with over 30 years of diverse and extensive experience globally in the food industry, including experience in the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia and China.

Peter will play an integral role on the food safety leadership team and specifically will be responsible for working closely with each Maple Leaf business unit to identify opportunities to further mitigate potential food safety risks.  His work will include establishing clear lines of communication with the product development teams on new products as well as evaluating methods to reduce risk in current product lines.  Peter will keep abreast of new food safety technologies, best practices and the latest in food safety research. 

Peter began his career as Research Officer at Campden and Chorleywood Foods Research Association, U.K. and then in a Microbiologist position at Midwest Research Institute, U.S. where he provided food safety technical support to the government of Saudi Arabia.  He then joined Campbell Soup Company, U.S. as manager of Technical and Analytical Services. Peter then went on to McDonald’s Corporate Food Safety group where he led the Supplier/Distribution HACCP Programs across a number of different commodities as well as leading the McDonalds Food Safety Advisory Council.

Peter was recruited to the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST), an FDA and industry- funded research and education center. During nearly 10 years with the Center, he directed food safety research programs as well as taught a number of graduate classes in food science, microbiology and food safety. Peter also successfully led the FDA-sponsored Allergen Task Force, and chaired the committee that developed the standardized Juice HACCP Training Curriculum.

Peter holds a Ph.D. in Food Science (Microbiology) from the University of Guelph.  

We’re very pleased that Peter is bringing his wealth of expertise and knowledge to join our team and participate on the blog.  Welcome to Maple Leaf Foods Peter!

Canadian Press (CP) issued a story yesterday about corrective action reports issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) 14 months ago, after an inspection at our Bartor Road plant.  

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.

In the wake of the listeriosis crisis this plant was one of the most scrutinized plants in North America. Before it re-opened it required the approval of both Health Canada and the CFIA, which it received in September. After re-opening it was inspected daily by a team of inspectors from CFIA as well as from Maple Leaf.  As part of these ongoing and rigorous inspections, issues were identified, acknowledged and documented.  It is the documentation from a few of these inspections in October and December that became the subject matter of today’s CP story.

The CFIA and Maple Leaf determined at the time that there was no food safety concern.  What this very detailed inspection process provided was an early indicator of potential issues in the plant that need to be corrected. And we corrected them.  Immediately.

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.

Most importantly, we have instituted an intensive program to train our staff and instill in them the belief that food safety must be the number one priority.  We continually train every one of our plant employees on our new procedures, which are based on the best food safety practices in North America.

Government inspections and the corrective action plans that result are an essential part of our food safety system. 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.  Our responsibility is to do our absolute best and to respond immediately where inspections reveal areas where we can improve.