The Weatherill Investigation was established in January as an independent investigation into the Listeriosis outbreak.  Sheila Weatherill who is leading this task is asking Canadians for their feedback.  Individuals are encouraged to send comments about their views on the Listeriosis outbreak last summer and more generally on food safety. 

The email address to send your comments is: contacts@li.investigation-enquete.gc.ca.  

Examples of valuable feedback requested include:

• How did you first learn about the outbreak (e.g., TV, newspaper, radio, word of mouth)?
• Did you go online to look up information on Listeriosis? Which web site(s) were most informative? If you visited the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s website, was the information easy to locate, was it easy to understand and was it helpful?
• Did the information you obtained (from whatever source) tell you what you needed to know? For example, did you know what products had been recalled, and how to tell if they were in your refrigerator? Were the symptoms of Listeriosis clearly communicated, so that you were able to determine if you or others close to you should seek medical advice?
• In terms of management and communications of the crisis, what do you think should have been done better?

We are extremely supportive of this “Listening to Canadians” initiative.  Maple Leaf learned many lessons from last year’s tragedy and welcomes the opportunity to learn more through this effort so that by working together with government and industry we can champion for better food safety performances in the interests of all Canadians.

Federal meat inspectors play a vital role in Canada’s food safety inspection system.  They ensure that all standards and proper testing are upheld to minimize potential risk in our food chain.

Yesterday at the on-going hearings of the Parliamentary Sub-committee on Food Safety, the head of the Agriculture Union, Bob Kingston, recommended for more inspectors and better training. Maple Leaf also believes in strong regulation and for higher government standards which I communicated when I  appeared at the hearings last month.

It is essential that government ensure there are enough resources, including inspectors, to consistently enforce compliance with regulations and tough penalties for companies that don’t comply with the rules. We also recommended that most resources should be directed to environmental testing and monitoring and analyzing those test results as it relates to Listeria.

There is no single silver bullet solution to strengthen Canada’s food safety system.  It will take great effort from industry and government to raise the bar in setting higher food safety standards in Canada that protect the interests of Canadians but I am pleased that an open dialogue is underway in Ottawa.

As the issue of food safety has become increasingly important to Canadians, we at Maple Leaf are committed to being leaders in employing best practices and adopting global state-of-the-art and emerging technologies in food processing.  

There has been a recent focus on one of the new technologies that destroys bacteria in certain prepared food products.  Maple Leaf Foods was an early adopter of Ultra High Pressure (UHP) technology in Canada and began using it in our Maple Leaf Simply Fresh entree products when they were introduced more than two years ago.  We are also now using this technology in a number of other products, including Maple Leaf Simply Savour fully cooked grilled chicken breast strips, fully cooked grilled turkey breast strips and fully cooked sirloin steak strips.  We are continuing to explore this and other food safety technologies that inhibit or destroy bacteria in food products, such as deli meats, and provide added food safety assurance to consumers.

As we expand our use of these technologies to new products, I will share that information here.