McCain takes responsibility for listeriosis outbreak

Toronto, Ontario - Michael McCain says his Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is responsible for harmful bacteria in its products and its not the fault of the government.

This week, its our efforts that failed, not the inspectors or the Canadian food safety system, said McCain, who is president and chief executive officer.

McCain said Maple Leaf violated our accountability in this circumstance, setting himself and his company up for class-action lawsuits that have already been announced by Tony Merchant in Saskatoon and Stephensons LLP of Toronto and Vaughan.

Merchants law firm has received more than 500 responses to its website, inviting Maple Leaf customers to fill out a questionnaire.

Stephensons announced that its been hired by Adrienne Adie of Toronto who says she was food-poisoned twice, and one of those two times by a Maple Leaf product made at a plant other than its 97B establishment on Bartor Road. She says she was taken by ambulance to hospital on one of the two occasions.

Stephensons is also pursuing a class-action lawsuit, claiming $250 million.

Meanwhile, the toll continues to riseto 15 deaths definitely linked to Maple Leaf products by DNA testing for the specific strain of Lysteria monocytogenes. Another Listeriosis victim in Eastern Ontario will not be added to the toll unless and until DNA tests confirm a link.

The Bartor Road plant was closed and all 220 products made there since June 2 have been recalled. Several dates for re-opening have been announced, then scrapped as the cleanup continues. Its not clear whether the delays are from the company or because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was not entirely satisfied with the cleanup and disinfection.

Bob Kingston, president of the union representing federal meat inspectors, said their duties were changed on March 31, calling for more scrutiny of company paperwork and leaving less time for walks through the plant to check conditions. The paperwork is company records related to food safety, labeling and weights and measures, all factors that the inspectors are to check.

He got into a slanging match with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz who said inspectors have half of their time available to be in the plant. Thats bullshit, Kingston said.

Ritz, who has often said the CFIA has hired 200 more front-line food inspectors, now says 58 more will be hired before the end of the year.

Some Liberal and NDP politicians and many major news media companies have been critical of the CFIA and of Ritz for coming down hard on a CFIA staff member who drew attention to a document listing potential budget cuts and reduced inspector scrutiny combined with increased private-sector responsibilities.

Those reports did not detail the nature of the shifts in responsibilities. One of the major ones is compliance with labeling regulations.

Keith Warriner, a food microbiologist at the University of Guelph, told the Globe and Mail that it takes a very high dose of listeria to make a person sick and said in a big outbreak like this, something definitely went wrong.

It needs over a billion cells to actually cause illness, Warriner said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised a complete review and overhaul of meat inspection.

Its necessary to reform and revamp our food and product-inspection after some years of neglect, he said.

Thats a sharp contrast with Ritz and his predecessor, Chuck Strahl, who steadfastly maintained the CFIA is doing a good job and that Canadian food is among the safest in the world.

Harper expanded on his comments in a second encounter with reporters and said one of the changes in meat inspection will be to increase the onus on companies. Thats in keeping with thinking among top meat inspection officials in Ottawa for the last 40 years.

Following media reports of faults U.S. inspectors found at Canadian packing plantsand a ban on sales to the U.S. from 25 of themthe top Canadian meat inspection officials said there should be a shift from constant over-the-shoulder inspection to company responsibility accompanied by microbial testing by government officials and recalls or plant shutdowns when faults are identified.

In the 1990s, the CFIA began to explore implementation of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) protocols, but took so long that the U.S. implemented HACCP and forced Canadian packing plants to meet them for sales to the U.S. long before the Canadians were ready to implement their own HACCP standards.

There is a similar controversy now with the U.S. implementing pasteurization protocols for already-packaged processed meats (putting them through boiling water or steam) and Canada not yet ready to implement a standard for this option.

Ritz has responded that companies are free to adopt the practice.