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

One of the commitments in Maple Leaf’s Food Safety Pledge is to share information and knowledge with government and others in the industry to raise food safety standards for all food production.  To that end, for almost two years now we, along with other stakeholders, have been actively participating,as Health Canada and the CFIA  review federal standards and regulations pertaining to Listeria in Ready to Eat Foods (RTE) and the prevention of Listeriosis.  This consultative process is being done with the view to further strengthen the scientific foundation of the regulatory policy directed at Listeria prevention and control in RTE foods.

Health Canada issued its revised draft policy on company practices pertaining to Listeria - “Policy on Listeria monocytogenes in Ready-to-Eat Foods” - and we responded with our comments during the period set by Health Canada as part of its consultation process.

In our view, the draft policy would represent good progress towards implementing the recommendations of Sheila Weatherill , the independent advisor tasked by the government to review Canada’s food safety system in the wake of the 2008 Listeriosis outbreak.  The draft policy follows very closely the scientific approach that is outlined in the Codex Alimentarius guidelines for Listeria in RTE foods, which smartly recognizes that risk from this pathogen is a function of cell population growth during shelf life and not merely a function of bacterial prescence.

Among the recommendations we made to Health Canada about the revised policy, was the suggestion that more be done to encourage testing for Listeria on non-food contact surfaces. Global best practice and our recent in-plant experience would prove that aggressively testing the plant environment where food products are prepared, and not just the end product and the surfaces that the food touches, is most effective. This is an approach we are taking over and above federal requirements today. And we believe national standards should do more to encourage testing non-food contact sites.

We encouraged the government to consider expanding the types of testing methods that industry in Canada can use.  Speed in learning about a problem early is essential.  Currently, it can take too long to get test results back from labs. Better and more rapid methods exist and are being used in other countries that can cut our time to results from about 6 - 7 days down to 2 or 3 days.  Being able to act on results four or five days sooner is a major improvement to food safety, and we think the revised policy should allow industry to adopt those new technologies.  Many other countries throughout the world have access to this more modern and rapid techniques, but in Canada the industry is limited to a very narrow definition of approved rapid methods that frankly, are not very rapid.

The fact that the tragic events which precipitated this policy review started with bacteria embedded in a deep harbourage point in our slicing equipment, is one of the reasons why we placed a strong emphasis on best practices in sanitation.  We believe the new policy should have a stronger focus on the importance of sanitation and related issues, such as sanitary equipment and facility design, that facilitates best practices in sanitation.  The purpose of having an aggressive environmental Listeria testing program is to measure effectiveness of the sanitation programs within a facility, so a stronger linkage in the policy between the testing program and sanitation would be appropriate.

That said, there are other issues that need to be addressed to help ensure food safety across the system.  We continue to make the case that different regulations for facilities that are provincially regulated, rather than federally regulated, and different rules concerning imported foods, constitute a vulnerability in consumer protection.

With the public consultation process now closed, work is now proceeding to review all the comments that were received with respect to the new Listeria policy.  We hope that after reviewing all the submissions, including our own, that Health Canada and CFIA will move quickly to get the revised policy and enhanced regulatory requirements in place by the end of the year.

Even when the new policy is made public, we will not stop searching for new ways to enhance our food safety practices. We have come to understand that food safety is not a destination but a journey.  There will always be new challenges and new ways of combating them. That’s why even now we don’t simply meet but, in many cases, exceed federal requirements.  And going forward, we will set our standards, not solely against the new policy and federal regulations, but also against our aspiration to be a global leader in food safety.

This week I participated in my very first “bloginar” - a meeting with about 15 bloggers in the Vancouver area. These were parents who blog regularly about a range of topics of interest to moms and dads and are read by parents across North America and beyond.  Healthy eating and food safety are high on the list of topics of importance to them.  We spent the evening talking about their concerns about the safety of the food system and what Maple Leaf is doing to advance food safety.  

Top concerns and questions raised by these bloggers focused on the recall of 2008 and the discovery of Listeria in Maple Leaf products. They wanted to know about the training programs that are in place now to make sure we’re following best practices. They asked what will help ensure we remain motivated to continue to raise the bar on our standards. One very good question on that topic was whether or not employees feel comfortable taking action if they have a food safety concern in our plants.

These are important questions for Maple Leaf. We went to great lengths to determine what happened in 2008 that caused the death of 23 Canadians. In responding to their questions I had a chance to explain the new practices we put in place to ensure better sanitization based on what we learned from detailed investigations. I talked about how we continue to submit our plants to regular and random audits and are working towards certification under the internationally recognized standards (specifically what’s known as GFSI or Global Food Safety Initiative standards).  And we actively encourage employees to let us know if they have a food safety concern or ideas to improve how we do things…it’s a critical part of building a culture of food safety.   

We also talked a bit about what consumers should know and can do to protect their families, and the types of home cleaning products such as bleach or even vinegar that can act as antimicrobials.

We’re really grateful that people came out and shared candid feedback last night. It was informative and good conversation and I think participants enjoyed it; I know I did. We have to stay in touch with what consumers expect of us bacause it’s going to help us do a better job.

After about 30 years in this industry, I joined Maple Leaf in late 2009 as SVP Food Safety and Quality Assurance, in part because I was impressed with the company’s commitment to lead in this area. I want to thank those Vancouver bloggers I met for coming out to the event. I’m looking forward to more sessions like this as well as continuing the discussion on-line. Keep visiting this blog as we’ll be sharing more updates. We want your comments!

“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!