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

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.

Canadian food processors, retailers, distributors, institutions,  trade associations,  government agencies and listeria experts came together last Friday,  in the spirit that Food Safety should not be treated as a competitive issue, to discuss global best practices in food safety at our ThinkFOOD! Centre in Mississauga.  What united us was our shared concern in understanding the latest  thinking on food safety broadly, but specifically in recent practices and research findings  on Listeria  prevalence, persistence  and  growth control technologies, so we  as an RTE (ready-to-eat) food industry can continue to do a better job of protecting  public health.  

The focus of this food safety symposia was on Listeria - as the company behind the listeriosis outbreak that resulted in 22 deaths listeria control is  one of our highest food safety priorit ies .  The Listeria presentations focused on two general themes:

1) Listeria monocytogenes is pervasive in the food environment

2) The critical importance of preventing growth of Listeria to high numbers in foods. 

Dr. Martin Wiedmann from Cornell University and Dr. Kathy Glass from the University of Wisconsin, who both presented, are leading scientists in this area.  

Dr. Weidmann  presented compelling data to show Listeria monocytogenes has widespread distribution, from very pristine environments to urban environments as well as food processing plants, retail stores, and home refrigerators. His evaluation of the genetic analysis of strains that are known to be persistent in seafood plants was very relevant to our understanding of control in RTE food plants.   Listeria is different from other pathogens as the concentration level  at the time of consumption determines whether people become ill. We also know that vulnerable populations such as the elderly, pregnant women and people who have compromised immune systems are more susceptible to foodborne illnesses.  Listeria it is also different from other pathogens in that it  can grow at low temperatures, however higher storage temperatures speed its growth. The key  for preventing illness is to keep foods that could contain Listeria  below 4ºC.  We learned from Dr. Glass, based on modeling done  in the US , that reducing refrigeration temperatures in the supply chain from current levels to consistently below 5ºC could reduce the number of cases of listeriosis in the United States from 2,500 to just 28!

The researchers also spoke to ingredients that  ingredients that can be used that further control the growth of Listeria.  Ingredients such as lactates and diacetates, which are very common and safe food ingredients that  can function to raise the pH level and inhibit the bacteria’s growth  are widely used in the U.S. Now approved for use in Canada, we are actively pursuing adding these ingredients to our products in addition to exploring the use of emerging technologies that can also be successful in mitigating risk against foodborne pathogens.

Our plan is to hold these Food Safety conferences annually bringing together our peers, government agencies, industry and others as the opportunity for learning and sharing global best practices in food safety is endless.   

On October 23,  leaders across the Canadian food industry and government are coming together to share information and learn about emerging technologies and science, in order to produce safer food for Canadians.

The food safety symposium entitled “Enhancing Our Knowledge and Capabilities to Produce Safer Food” is the first gathering of its kind since the new Canadian Listeria policy was put into place after the lessons learned from last year’s Listeria crisis.

The symposium features presentations from Canada’s leading health and regulatory experts including Jane Billings, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Public Health Agency of Canada, who will discuss foodborne illness trends and public health initiatives in Canada.  Dr. Brian Evans, Executive Vice President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, (CFIA) will discuss his agency’s regulatory approach and challenges and opportunities related to implementation of the new Listeria new policy.  Global experts in communication, detection and control will present the latest findings in testing and use of antimicrobials to build an effective Listeria management program, and discuss how to effectively communicate risk.  The event is hosted by Maple Leaf Foods.

Symposium presenters:

Jane Billings, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Public Health Agency of Canada

Dr. Brian Evans, Executive Vice President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Dr. Kathy Glass, Associate Director, Food Research Institute, University of Wisconsin

Dr. Peter Sandman, Risk Communications Consultant

Dr. Martin Wiedmann, Associate Professor, Department of Food Science, Cornell University

Dr. Randall Huffman , Chief Food Safety Officer, Maple Leaf Foods

Iain Stewart, Senior Vice President, Transformation & Food Safety, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods