The three-person report into what went wrong at XL Foods
Inc. last fall points to multiple failures and flaws in both the system and
enforcement of protocols.
The company clearly comes off worst, but the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency, producers and retailers all share some responsibility for
the biggest beef recall in Canadian history – 4,000 tonnes of beef, 1,800
products distributed across Canada and into the United States. Exports to 20
nations were impacted, especially to Japan and Hong Kong.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz promised all 30
recommendations will be acted upon and, in fact, he has already announced
implementation of the key recommendations.
He told the House of Commons he will be spending $16 million
over three years to create Inspection Verification Teams. They will do surprise
audits at all federally-registered food plants, not just meat packers.
That would include egg, fruit and vegetable, nut and fish
plants.
Paul Mayer, vice-president at the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency, told a telephone news conference that these teams will be “a second set
of eyes” to check both the food companies and the front-line CFIA staff. That
speaks to the chief recommendation the study team made – that the companies and
CFIA need to foster a culture of food safety.
The CFIA has also begun to implement more and different
staff training protocols. That’s also a followup on the Weatherall report and
recommendations after 23 Canadians died of food poisoning because Listeria
monocytogenes contaminated meat processed at the Bartor Road plant in Toronto
owned by Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
This report notes that in both the Maple Leaf and XL cases
there were failures to properly and vigorously follow up when harmful bacteria
were detected in sampling and testing undertaken by the companies.
Maple Leaf blames contamination of meat slicers for
contaminating so many of its products. The XL report says it’s “highly likely”
that its problems are also rooted in contaminated equipment because the exact
same genetic strain of E. coli 0157:H7 turned up in beef processed over a
four-day period.
The report is critical of XL Foods for failing to conduct
trend analyses and ferret out the “root causes” of “high event periods” of
contamination by harmful bacteria.
Weatherall made the same criticisms of Maple Leaf Foods.
The report reveals that it was not only U.S. border
officials who made the first discovery of contaminated beef from XL Foods. The
same day a test at Ginger Beef Choice Ltd., a further-processing company in
Calgary, identified E. coli 0157:H7.
However, at that stage the report says there was no reason
to believe any contaminated beef had gone to retail shelves, so no public alert
was issued.
That didn’t come until another week passed and the plant
continued to operate until Sept. 27. The report credits an immediate recall,
albeit secret, for limiting the damage to the public.
The report is
critical of communications to the further-processing plants that bought beef
from XL and says in the future they ought to have observer status during news media
briefings.
They and the public ought to get clearer information about
why a recall has been issued.
The report notes that Canadian farmers suffered because prices
declined when XL closed from Sept. 27 until late October. It processed 35 per
cent of the Canadian beef supply.
The situation also undermined Canadians’ trust in the safety
of Canadian beef and accentuated a long-term decline in beef sales.
The report also repeats a recommendation made by Weatherall
that the Public Health Agency take lead responsibility for communicating to the
public during these types of food-industry crises.
The report notes that CFIA staff complained that the line
speeds are too fast and that the company’s staff turnover is too fast and high.
The turnover is about 30 per cent per year.
The report does not mention the additional challenges of
communicating with workers whose English-language skills are elementary and the
difficulty training and supervising so many new people.
The report says the CFIA should shift some of its attention
from watching test results to training about food safety protocols.
It also calls for Health Canada to check up on the CFIA’s
meat inspection system.
And Health Canada should move faster to approve new
food-safety “interventions,” the three authors say, and they specifically
mention irradiation.
At the farm level, they say improvements are possible if:
-
premises are kept cleaner, including clean
bedding and water.
-
cattle were vaccinated against E. coli 0157:H7,
although it notes that’s expensive, disturbs the cattle and does little to
improve the prices farmers are paid.
-
feed probiotics and competitive-exclusion
supplements.
-
treat drinking water with sodium chlorate.
-
administer bacteriophages that attack and
destroy E. coli 0157:H7 immediately before slaughter.
At packing
plants, they say key factors are:
- washing
hides and carcasses.
- spraying
carcasses with lactic acid.
- administering
a pre-evisceration wash.
- steam
pasteurizing carcasses.
- irradiating
beef. However, that awaits Health Canada approval.
The report notes that the incidence of E.
coli 0157:H7 in the Canadian meat supply has been in decline, partly as a
result of industry and government responses to enhance food safety.
However, other sources of harmful bacteria
in the Canadian food supply have been increasing.
The report notes that Alberta Health Agency
learned on Sept. 18 that mechanically-tenderized beef from the Costco store in
North Edmonton was involved in four cases of E.coli 0157:H7 food poisoning. The
report says it’s not clear whether that contamination was the result of failure
only at XL or also a failure at Costco, where the tenderizing was done.
The federal government has since said all mechanically-tenderized
beef must be labeled and include a warning to consumers that it needs to be
well cooked.
The report says XL may have missed E. coli
0157:H7 in beef trimmings because its samples were not taken by probing deep
enough into combos (large bins of meat).
The plant now uses N60 equipment to draw
samples.
