Independent Investigator Disparages Canada’s Response to 2008 Listeria Outbreak

A new report by an independent investigator is harshly critical of Canada’s food safety system with respect to the 2008 Listeria outbreak linked to the deaths of 22 people.

Sheila Weatherill, a nurse and health executive who led the federally appointed investigation, said the system was caught unprepared and acted without urgency, citing a void in leadership, a raft of systematic flaws, a shortage of inspectors, and evidence of contamination on meat-production lines months before last summer’s outbreak that was not effectively monitored.

While Listeria is difficult to detect, “more could have been done to prevent it happening in the first place . . . and more must be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Weatherill asserts. Her 57 recommendations include (i) providing better training for food inspectors, (ii) assigning Canada’s public health agency the lead role in responding to national foodborne emergencies and (iii) performing an
external audit to determine whether more inspectors are needed. See Reuters, July 21, 2009; FoodProductionDaily.com, July 22, 2009.