Food Safety Expert Says Canada’s Listeria-Testing Rules Do Not Go Far Enough
As the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) unveiled tougher Listeria-testing rules for ready-to-eat meat manufacturing facilities at the end of February 2009, one of the federal government’s food safety advisors reportedly claimed that the rules do not go far enough for large operations. The tougher rules resulted from last summer’s listeriosis outbreak that purportedly led to the deaths of 20 Canadians and was traced to ready-to-eat meats produced at a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto. The company reportedly cited the build up of Listeria “deep inside” two slicing machines as the most likely source.
Under the new rules, effective April 1, operators producing deli meats and hot dogs must (i) begin testing food-contact surfaces up to once a week per line; (ii) look for trends in the results to catch potential problems; (iii) report all positive tests immediately to agency inspectors, who will be required to increase the frequency of their own monitoring tests; and (iv) test meat products up to 12 times a year for possible Listeria contamination.
University of Manitoba food microbiologist Rick Holley, a member of the agency’s academic advisory panel on food safety, reportedly said that the new testing regime for food-contact surfaces should be the minimum for any big operation. According to Holley, “In a large operation, such as we see in the companies the size of Maple Leaf, they would be well advised to increase food-contact surface sampling frequencies beyond the description and the scaffold that has been given in this document.”
A meat inspectors union representative reportedly said that while the changes are “good,” the CFIA needs to devote more resources to get the job done. “The problem is they’re going to be asking their staff to do more than they were already doing,” he was quoted as saying. “On top of having to monitor more rigorously what the plants are doing, they’re also going to be stepping up their own testing. All those are good
things. Everything they’ve put on paper is good, but there are no more additional resources.” See canada.com, February 27, 2009.
