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.

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.

Today I will be appearing at the Sub-Committee on Food Safety of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

I am looking forward to sharing my insights into last year’s tragedy and what we have learned since the listeria outbreak. In preparation for my testimony we have prepared a detailed backgrounder on the events of last August.  

I will also be advocating in support of a stronger role for regulators in raising the standards on food safety for all food processors. We believe it is critical that there be one set of tough Federal standards premised on science-based policy that provides for consistent application and enforcement through inspection both nationally and at our borders. Further information on our position can be found here.

The Food Safety hearings will be broadcast on CPAC (http://www.cpac.ca) and I invite you to tune in and continue the conversation on the blog.