As listeria hysteria subsided, prime minister Stephen Harper promised an independent inquiry into the outbreak at Maple Leaf Foods’ Toronto plant.
The federal Liberals, however, said the impending election would delay an inquiry and called on Harper to fire agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, who is responsible for Canada’s food safety system.
The outbreak, originating from a Maple Leaf facility in Toronto, has been linked to 38 cases of listeriosis in five provinces. Half of those people died, and listeria was the underlying cause in 13 of those cases. The other six are still under investigation.
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The number of suspected cases sat at 24 as of Sept. 8. Because the incubation period can be as long as 70 days, officials expect more cases even though potentially contaminated meat products were recalled in late August.
About 220 types of products from the plant were recalled and several retailers and restaurant outlets pulled products from shelves and menus.
Harper told a news conference in Ontario last week that even though Maple Leaf was taking responsibility, he wants more information.
“I’m troubled as a father whose family buys and uses some of these products,” he told reporters. “I’m also troubled as the head of a government that has made substantial investments in our food safety system.”
Harper said an investigation would examine what happened and result in changes to make sure this type of outbreak doesn’t happen again.
Throughout the outbreak, the government was criticized for its food inspection system. A new verification system began March 31 and some have complained that inspectors spend more time auditing company documents than doing inspections.
In Winnipeg Sept. 4, Liberal leader Stephane Dion said Ritz should be fired for misleading the public with inaccurate and contradictory statements about the government’s plan to make even more cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“Either the minister is deliberately misleading Canadians or he is dangerously unaware of the government’s plan to gut critical food safety systems,” said Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter.
Ritz has said a leaked Treasury Board memo outlining changes to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a discussion document, but the Liberals say the document offers too many specific timelines and budgets to be simply for discussion.
Meanwhile, Dr. David Butler-Jones, chief public health officer at the Canadian Public Health Agency, last week reminded the public that listeria is commonly found in the environment and usually does not pose a threat.
“At any given time we are dealing with several different outbreaks,” he said.
Canada has one of the safest food supplies in the world, he added, but problems can still arise.
“Nature is constantly inventive, and at any point, from farm to our kitchen, outbreaks can and will happen,” he said.
There are about 100 cases of listeriosis each year in Canada under normal circumstances. The public health agency estimates that between 11 and 13 million Canadians suffer from food-borne bacterial illness each year.
The Maple Leaf outbreak was detected after health officials noticed an unusually high number of cases.
