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.