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 is an important day for us at Maple Leaf Foods.  We are making a public pledge to Canadians about what we promise to do about food safety, both in our products and across the industry.  This flows from the very deep commitment we made following the listeriosis outbreak of August 2008 that resulted in the death of 23 Canadians.

In the wake of this tragedy, I made some solemn undertakings on behalf of Maple Leaf Foods to the people of this country about our determination to do everything in our power to prevent an outbreak like this from ever happening again.  I meant that then, and I mean it now as much as ever.

We have spent the last 18 months seeking the advice of the best experts in the world (and in many cases hiring them), examined every one of our previous practices, made significant improvements in all areas of food safety – testing, training and sanitization – and worked with industry and government to raise the bar. We’ve also reached out to Canadians in many ways to hear from you what your concerns are and what you expect.

Our Maple Leaf Food Safety Pledge is the embodiment of these efforts.  It is our public commitment to you about what you can expect from us and what we expect of ourselves.  It is the expression of our commitment to be second to none in the area of food safety.  It is an expression of our determination to be improving all the time. We hold ourselves, and you should hold us, accountable against these standards.

Please take the time to read the Food Safety Pledge.  We welcome your feedback and comments. I also encourage you to return to this blog and participate in what I hope will become a lively and informative source of discussion about food safety and health issues.

On behalf of the 23,500 employees of Maple Leaf Foods, we are grateful for the trust and confidence Canadians have placed in us.  We remain committed to earning your trust each and every day.

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.