Widespread blame for listeria outbreak

The 21 people who died, and scores who were sickened by listeria monocytogenes bacteria in Maple Leaf Foods Inc. products they ate last year, were victims of senior management at the company and the federal government, of stressed government inspectors and of lousy communications, says Sheila Weatherill, the person appointed to conduct an inquiry.
Weatherill accused the senior managers for the company and the government of "insufficient focus" on food safety. She also says no single company or agency can be blamed, but they all bear some responsibility.
She says there wasn't enough communication about sanitation requirements between the company that made the meat slicers and Maple Leaf Foods Inc. The bacteria was found inside some of the meat slicers during an intensive cleanup after the entire plant on Bartor Road in Toronto was shut down and all of the more than 200 different types of meats processed there were recalled.
Weatherill says there should be better relations between equipment manufacturers and meatpacking companies over these issues, but Keith Warriner, a food researcher at the University of Guelph says there is already close co-operation between them.
Weatherill says Maple Leaf staff first identified Listeria at the plant in March 2007, long before the company and government officials acknowledged the outbreak in July 2008. She says they failed to share this finding with Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials, and the CFIA inspectors failed to ask for documentation and company records detailing the results of lab tests.
She also says the CFIA inspectors lack sufficient training and the ones in charge at the Bartor Road plant were stressed because they were responsible for more than one meat-packing plant.
Both company and government officials were slow to respond to the crisis when it began to emerge in July, she says, and communications were slow, insufficient and ended too soon.
The federal government failed one of the key principles of emergency response: to designate a single spokesman to deliver a consistent message, she says. Instead the messages were fragmented and inconsistent.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz hosted most of the news conferences, but is seen by many as too apologetic for the meat industry. Weatherill says the lead in this type of food-poisoning emergency should be the Public Health Canada, which is in Winnipeg.
It was almost invisible during this crisis.
Weatherill also found as a result of interviewing more than 100 people that Health Canada was short of staff during the crisis, partly because some were taking summer vacations.
Ritz said more inspectors have been hired since the crisis. Michael McCain, president and chief executive officer for Maple Leaf, said the company has totally revamped its food safety protocols since the outbreak.
McCain said the company will swiftly implement Weatherill's recommendations. Ritz has promised to review them carefully.
Liberal Agriculture Critic Wayne Easter has said the public deserves a full-blown public inquiry. He says Weatherill's investigation is insufficient because she was appointed by the Harper government and conducted her inquiry in private without power to force people to testify or turn over documents.
Weatherill said she received full co-operation from everyone she approached.