PM offers condolences over listeriosis

BILL CURRY 
Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press
August 26, 2008 at 6:41 PM EDT

OTTAWA - The massive Maple Leaf meat recall highlights the need for Ottawa to overhaul its meat inspection regime, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday.

Contradicting critics who say the government's proposes inspection reforms would make food recalls even more likely, Mr. Harper defended his plan.

The Prime Minister also defended the fact that his health minister, Tony Clement, is spending the week in Denver at the U.S. Democratic convention. Opposition critics had declared it "reprehensible" that the health minister would not cancel his trip in light of the rising death toll.

Mr. Harper said managing the government's response to the outbreak is primarily the responsibility of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who heads the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

"All officials of the government and both ministers have been following this closely," Mr. Harper said. "First of all, let me just say this: Obviously I think we all feel tremendously for those who have been affected by this. It is a terrible development and I want to express, obviously, my condolences to those families that have been affected. I think all of us, and obviously I include my own family in this, we expect that when we shop that the things we buy or that we eat are going to be safe."

The Conservative government's reforms are currently the subject of heated controversy as academics and the opposition express concerns over the few details that have emerged so far. The 2008 budget indicated the CFIA was tasked to find savings in order to pay for new CFIA programs, but further details did not emerge until last month via a leaked cabinet document.

That document indicated savings would be found by transferring some meat inspection duties to industry in order to free up CFIA inspectors for new activities. 

"This is a serious concern," Mr. Harper continued, in reference to the outbreak. "That's why I indicated and Mr. Clement and Mr. Ritz, the three of us indicated in a couple of press conferences in the last [while], that 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."

Mr. Harper rejected any suggestions that the federal government is not doing enough.

"I think all members of the government have been on top of this. The federal public servants have been doing a good job. 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."

On Tuesday afternoon, Saskatchewan's Ministry of Heath confirmed that listeria was a factor in the death of a woman in her 80s. She was staying in a long-term care facility in the Heartland Health Region in the west of the province. The woman died Sunday, one month after a test revealed the listeriosis strain that is now linked with the massive Maple Leaf meat recall in her system, officials said.

"We're continuing our investigation," said Joan Petrie, a spokeswoman for Saskatchewan Health. "It was a factor. She had underlying health conditions and we need to determine whether this strain of listeria caused this death, or was a contributing factor."

So far six deaths in Canada have been conclusively linked to the outbreak, while another nine deaths remain under investigation. The Saskatchewan woman's is one of the nine.

More than 220 products have been recalled, including three additional brands, announced Tuesday, of ready-made sandwiches sold in the Maritimes and Ontario that contain recalled meat.

Two distributors, Atlantic Prepared Foods Limited and Metro Ontario Inc., are voluntarily recalling sandwiches that may contain some of the 220 affected meat products.

Atlantic recalled Irving, Sub Delicious and Needs brand sandwiches, sold throughout New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Metro Ontario removed three sandwiches from its Fresh 2 Go brand from selected A & P and Dominion locations across the province.

Maple Leaf initiated its recall after Listeria monocytogenes bacteria were detected on some of the goods produced in one of its Toronto plants, but eventually pulled all products made at the facility from store shelves as the outbreak escalated.

Maple Leaf's stock has taken a pounding as the extent of the recall, which it estimates will cost about $20-million, not including the impact on sales down the road.

Maple Leaf shares were down 8 per cent early Tuesday after losing about 10 per cent Monday.

Federal lab tests have concluded that the strain of bacteria found at the Maple Leaf plant is linked to the outbreak, but CFIA officials and Maple Leaf executives say more testing is needed to determine whether the tainted meat directly contributed to any of the deaths.

The recall has also spurred the beginnings of a class-action lawsuit which alleges, among other things, that Maple Leaf "failed to maintain a level of sanitariness suitable to prevent the contamination of food products."

"If the Maple Leaf Foods defendant has exercised reasonable care in maintaining sanitary conditions that were suitable and had diligently been testing its products - the food products in question would not have been recalled," says a statement of claim filed with courts in several provinces.

Tony Merchant, the lawyer heading up the class action, said he's been contacted by about 300 people expressing interest in joining the suit, which already names several plaintiffs, including Michelle Whelan - a 37-year old woman with a weak immune system.

"The plaintiff became incredibly ill - and was resultantly bed ridden for a period of three or four consecutive days [after eating a recalled product]," says the statement of claim.

The allegations have not been proven in court and Maple Leaf did not immediately return calls.

The latest recalls of prepared sandwiches come a day after Calgary-based Lucerne Foods pulled its Safeway and TakeAwayCafe brand sandwiches from store shelves in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The CFIA has not reported any illnesses connected with any of the affected sandwiches.

In Toronto, shoppers at a downtown grocery store expressed concern about deli meats in general, not just those affected by the recall.

"I thought I wouldn't buy any sort of sliced cold meats for a bit," said Lesley Flowerdew, 72. "It's listeriosis with Maple Leaf today, but I mean there might be another problem tomorrow."

Ali Vocal, 13, about to start his first year of high school, said he normally asks his mom to get cold cuts so he can put together a quick lunch for school in the mornings - something he won't be doing for a while.

"I'm just going to stop for a while until everything's cool again," Ali said. "I just don't want to get sick and miss school and not get my credit."

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Monday that the number of listeriosis cases across Canada is likely to rise, adding that 29 instances of the illness are currently under investigation.

"All the suspect cases have been diagnosed with listeriosis, but it is only via laboratory testing, the genetic fingerprinting, that we can determine if they are directly linked" to the outbreak, Mr. Ritz said.

Maple Leaf's reaction to the outbreak has been met with praise in academic and political circles.

Mr. Clement said the situation validated the country's food-safety systems by proving their effectiveness, and analysts said Maple Leaf's strong reputation in the field will be enough to help the company weather the current spate of bad publicity.

"I think that as they've acted extremely responsibly, after a short while the consumers will forget about it. ... They've got a very short memory," John Winter of John Winter and Associates said.

Mr. Winter compared Maple Leaf's response to that of Johnson & Johnson, one of the world's biggest makers of health and consumer products, when seven people in the Chicago area died after taking cyanide-laced capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol in 1982.

At the time, experts predicted that the brand would never recover, but within a year Johnson & Johnson had almost entirely regained its former share of the painkiller market.

Mr. Winter praised Maple Leaf's thorough response, which included both the extensive product recall and the temporary shutdown of the Toronto plant where the bacteria was discovered.

Maple Leaf officials said the plant will remain closed for a few more days to allow the company to conduct further assessments.