28 August – As the Maple Leaf listeria outbreak continues, critics have begun to question the nature of recent changes to Canada's food safety regime that, they claim, could have contributed to the crisis.
A new regulation that allows food companies to conduct their own safety testing has been called into question by some experts.
Concerns have also bee raised that the Toronto plant linked to the origin of the outbreak that has so far killed 12 people had just a single official from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency scrutinising safety systems. Critics say the new system means inspectors, who cover several facilities, spend little time on the factory floor and instead check paperwork completed by companies that all practices are being adhered to.
The new regulatory regime means federal inspectors carry out random product tests three or four times a year at each plant, with meat packers obliged to carry out testing once a month.
Critics say under the former system, inspectors had a more hands on role on the factory floor, had greater freedom to investigate and carried out more safety tests themselves.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper has admitted the outbreak and nationwide recall means the meat inspection system needs to revamped.
He said: “It's necessary to reform and revamp our food- and product-inspection regime after some years of neglect. As you know, in the recent budget, we put considerably more inspectors and resources into this.”
Harper dismissed allegations the federal government had not done enough.
“Obviously we want to make sure that the companies maintain their responsibilities and that we fully review all the facts here to understand what went wrong and how we can prevent it in the future,” he was reported as saying.
Some critics have said that Canada has failed to learn from past outbreaks, unlike the US that introduced new measure after 15 people died after eating infected hotdogs in 1998. Since then, many US firms pasteurise ready-to-eat meats as a way of killing the bacteria that cause listeria. The practice is not widespread in Canada.