Sausage quandary

May 31, 2006
The Toronto Star
Jennifer Bain

For 28 years, Superior Sausage and Meat Products has quietly been going about its business on a residential strip of Dundas St. W. near Ossington Ave. in Toronto.

Superior Sausage has been passing its Toronto Public Health inspections, both as a food store and a meat processing plant. But since it cuts, cooks, smokes and packages meat - without actually slaughtering animals - it was able to skirt tougher provincial rules.
However, on June 11, 2005, Ontario launched meat regulation 31/05 under the Food Safety and Quality Act. Now it will inspect not just abattoirs, but plants that process meat products.
Superior Sausage has been given a temporary six-month licence and orders to bring its facility up to snuff, or find a new location, by October.

Customer Louise Morley was quoted as asking in an e-mail to the Toronto Star last week, "Why destroy a shop that has been producing good food to grateful customers for so many years?"

She was also quoted as saying in a letter to Tom Baker, director of the food inspection branch of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, that, "This is a small, hands-on operation run by people who, with years of experience behind them and first-hand knowledge of the traditional recipes, make fine meat products. A mega-company like Schneiders cannot compete with them in terms of flavour. One of the joys of living in Toronto is the contact with a multiplicity of cultures from all over the world. Please do not close down one small shining example of this positive aspect of living in a huge city."

The story says that the owners - Alice Mika, her husband Mike Mika and their friend Kathy Hejmo - are grateful for the support, but remain frightened about the future.

Alice Mika was quoted as saying, "We are a small company. We don't make that much money to go into a debt of a million dollars to move into a better place."

According to the government, Superior Sausage is actually classified as a medium-sized business.

Since last year, provincial inspectors have helped about 60 large plants (that sell more than 1 million kilos of finished meat products each year) modernize and earn licences. Now they're helping about 50 medium businesses (that sell 1/2 million to 1 million kilos annually) comply by October. This is where Superior Sausage fits in. Then inspectors will spend two years helping about 700 businesses (those that sell less than 1/2 million kilos) get up to speed.

Baker was cited as saying that most of these businesses need improvements in one or more of three main areas. They must banish wooden surfaces that come in contact with meat. They need better ventilation to deal with moisture/condensation challenges that come with the temperature extremes of running smokehouses and having fridges/freezers. And they should strive to have "one-way flow" - meaning that cutting, cooking/smoking, storing/packing should ideally be done in separate areas so raw meat can't contaminate ready-to-eat products.

Mike Mika was quoted as saying, "I don't mind following the rules, but I don't like that we have to move and buy a new place to do it. To rent is $10,000 a month. I can't afford that. I'd better quit."