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.

I’ve just returned from Lubbock, Texas, and to cooler temperatures believe it or not here in Toronto. What took me to the Lone Star state was the annual meeting of the American Meat Science Association. For the next year I will be serving as President of the association and I took over that responsibility at the meeting Tuesday night. This annual meeting, dubbed The Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC), has been occurring annually since 1948.  The RMC got its name from the original format for the meeting which encouraged active dialogue and audience participation concerning scientific topics related to meat, hence the term “reciprocation”.  The meeting retains this same format today giving attendees the chance to learn and interact with experts across a wide variety of topics.  Typically held on a university campus providing access to laboratories and teaching facilities, this year was no different.  Over 600 attendees got to experience the amazing new meat science facilities at Texas Tech University

To those of you who don’t think about meat science too much, it may surprise you to learn how much the fresh and processed meat industry relies on research and science.  Just because we work with products you may have known and enjoyed for years doesn’t mean we aren’t constantly learning and reviewing new research to better understand food production and processing, safety and nutrition. Members of the association bring different perspectives in this respect - some are scientists from universities and others are with companies across North America and elsewhere. Government officials also play an active role as individual members of the association. The association is one way in which these folks come together to share the latest on animal husbandry techniques, muscle biology, meat chemistry and microbiology, and finished product safety and nutrition.

Some of the presentations at this week’s conference included topics on sodium-reduction initiatives and continuing research into nitrites and nitrates, and validation of in-plant microbial interventions.  These issues are important to consumers and there’s a lot that is being investigated so we can have a better understanding of them.  What makes the association’s work so important is that it’s not just supporting rigorous peer-reviewed science - it’s ensuring that the industry is made aware of the research findings that can have an impact on the work that food manufacturers do to produce everyday products. Members of the association benefit when we know the decisions we have to take in our jobs are based on all available evidence - from outside and inside our companies.

Two areas of focus over the coming year (yes, there are term limits to this Presidency) are strengthening the association’s base of support and carrying out its newly launched strategic plan to be the leading forum for knowledge about meat and meat science.  A key principle of our strategic plan is the importance of sharing information and knowledge - a principle that is especially important to those of us at Maple Leaf given our focus on sharing food safety information.

If you have comments or questions about how we in the industry are using research in areas of interest to you, let me know. Over the next year, I’ll be collaborating with researchers and professionals on a number of topics. For myself and our industry, I hope it’s another year where we continue to learn and improve in what we do every day.

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!