Listeria Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark Law Firm : Listeria Blog

The aftermath of the listeria outbreak caused by contaminated ready-to-eat meats produced by Maple Leaf Foods in Toronto, Canada continues to generate some interesting news.   The class action lawsuit  that's underway has attracted support from some 4,000 plaintiffs including the families of the 20 people who died in the outbreak.  

Then there's the joint investigation by CBC and the Toronto Star that looked into the response of Chartwell Care Corp., Canada's largest third-party manager of seniors housing, to the outbreak.

CBC-Toronto Star reporters  found that two-thirds of meat samples taken from Toronto-area nursing homes and hospitals in mid-August for testing were contaminated with listeria.  Chartwell posted letters in two of its nursing homes in southern Ontario - including Villa Forum in Mississauga - after Maple Leaf Foods began recalling all its products from one Toronto plant in August.

The posted letters, which confirmed one case of listeriosis among the nursing home's residents, said the chain would take blood samples for all the residents in the home.

However, the joint CBC-Toronto Star probe found the letters were later removed and no testing was done on residents.

AOL has a summary of the investigation here.  The Windsor Star has a story on who's in and who's out of the class action lawsuit here.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Maple Leaf Foods in Canada, responsible for 20 deaths from listeria that rode out of its Toronto plant on ready-to-eat meats,  is not really out of the woods yet.   Its turned to a new  listeria-fighting additive--sodium diacetate--as a preservative at its plant.

Health Canada approved on Sept. 20 the use of sodium diacetate as a preservative for meat, poultry and fish.  Maple Leaf blamed its meat-slicing equipment for the accumulation of listeria that contaminated its products.

Meanwhile, the Windsor Star reports that Maple Leaf's Chief Executive Michael McCain has gone on the offense about the regulatory oversight the company is encountering.  According to the Star, McCain..

says there are hundreds of provincial meat plants across the country operating under "significantly" lower standards than those applied to his company, and it's time to create national rules for the sake of Canadian consumers.

"Right now, we have two-tier system. It is clear to me and, I think, most scientists would agree with this, that the provincial standards are not at the same level as the federal standards," chief executive officer Michael McCain said in an interview Friday.

"We've moved beyond that. Canadians have moved beyond that. And we should establish one standard for Canadian food safety. Consumers deserve that. If that means the elimination of provincial standards, then that's what we would support."

For the rest the story, go here.

Maple Leaf resumed operations at its Toronto plant on Sept. 17th, but has not yet been able to ship all products from the facility.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Is Canada's conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper ultimately to blame for the listeria outbreak from the Maple Leaf Foods deli meats?   With 20 deaths already linked to the outbreak and another six under investigation,  the focus in Canada continues to be on blame.

Last April 1st, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency adopted a new policy that meat inspectors now say removed clear language that required companies to report any positive listeria tests directly to inspectors.  Instead, inspectors now do after-the-fact audits of the company's paper work at Canada's 198 meat processing plants.

According to CBC News:

"Prior to April 1, [any positive listeria tests] would have had to have been, not only brought to the inspector's attention, but the inspector would have been involved in overseeing the cleanup," said Bob Kingston, head of the union representing CFIA inspectors.

"The CFIA would have been doing their own testing to validate the success of the cleanup. But after April 1, with the changes they brought in, none of that happened. They weren't required to bring their cleanup activities to the inspector's attention, [and] they wouldn't have been required to bring a failed cleanup attempt to the inspector's attention, or repeated positives."

Inspectors said had the alarm bells been sounded earlier, lives could have been saved.

"Bells and whistles would have been sounding if [Maple Leaf officials] had to report positive test findings to an inspector," said one Toronto area CFIA inspector who spoke to the CBC and the Star on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

"We might not have had anybody dead [if company officials were still obligated to report positive listeria findings]. It's terrible. My dad eats this stuff all the time. I eat it," the inspector said.

For more, including Maple Leaf's side of the story, go here.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link