Monday, May 29, 2017

Powell critical of CFIA on flour issues

Doug Powell, who has a PhD in food safety communications, is highly critical of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada and flour-industry companies over contamination with E. coli 0121.

Ardent Mills has been the source of flour recalls by a number of brand names, including Robin Hood.

Powell takes issue with the CFIA claim that there have been no illnesses associated with the recall, noting that six people in British Columbia were sickened by flour.

The national outbreak has affected 30 people from six provinces: British Columbia (13), Saskatchewan (4), Alberta (5), Ontario (1), Quebec (1) and Newfoundland and Labrador (5). One of the 30 cases was a visitor to Canada. 

The illness onset dates range from November 2016 to April 2017, he quotes from the B.C.Centre for Disease Control on his blog.

Powell writes “Do you folks all get your flour from the same place and slap your name on it like Trump slaps his name on towers?

“If so, where is the common processor, and why the (explitive) is there E. coli O121 in it? (It has many mills, including in Ontario).
“What are companies prepared to do, like offering pasteurized flour, especially so the medically vulnerable can continue to bake without fretting about flour dust?


“And when will the Public Health Agency of Canada move beyond boilerplate fairy tales like wash hands, and offer something meaningful to Canadians who bake?”