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.

“Creating a high performing food safety organization” is one of the pillars of Maple Leaf’s Food Safety Strategy.  We are committed to building a world-class food safety and quality team to ensure we have  strong  technical and scientific expertise throughout Maple Leaf.

I am pleased to welcome Peter Slade to my team as Senior Director, Food Safety Technical Affairs.  Peter is an internationally recognized food safety leader with over 30 years of diverse and extensive experience globally in the food industry, including experience in the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia and China.

Peter will play an integral role on the food safety leadership team and specifically will be responsible for working closely with each Maple Leaf business unit to identify opportunities to further mitigate potential food safety risks.  His work will include establishing clear lines of communication with the product development teams on new products as well as evaluating methods to reduce risk in current product lines.  Peter will keep abreast of new food safety technologies, best practices and the latest in food safety research. 

Peter began his career as Research Officer at Campden and Chorleywood Foods Research Association, U.K. and then in a Microbiologist position at Midwest Research Institute, U.S. where he provided food safety technical support to the government of Saudi Arabia.  He then joined Campbell Soup Company, U.S. as manager of Technical and Analytical Services. Peter then went on to McDonald’s Corporate Food Safety group where he led the Supplier/Distribution HACCP Programs across a number of different commodities as well as leading the McDonalds Food Safety Advisory Council.

Peter was recruited to the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST), an FDA and industry- funded research and education center. During nearly 10 years with the Center, he directed food safety research programs as well as taught a number of graduate classes in food science, microbiology and food safety. Peter also successfully led the FDA-sponsored Allergen Task Force, and chaired the committee that developed the standardized Juice HACCP Training Curriculum.

Peter holds a Ph.D. in Food Science (Microbiology) from the University of Guelph.  

We’re very pleased that Peter is bringing his wealth of expertise and knowledge to join our team and participate on the blog.  Welcome to Maple Leaf Foods Peter!

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.