Deregulated finger pointing at Maple Leaf

Maple Leaf Foods believes that the listeria contamination was caused by accumulation of bacteria deep within the meat-slicing equipment.

It wasn't until two meat slicers, were disassembled that areas were found deep within the machine where listeria bacteria may have accumulated and "avoided our rigorous sanitization procedures," Mr. McCain said.

"Certainly the disassembly that took place here would be outside the scope of anybody's normal, routine consideration for sanitization," Mr. McCain said.

However the machine's manufacturer insists its product was not to blame.

"There has never been a serious food safety issue associated with any of the S-180 slicers - including the machines at the Maple Leaf facility, which have been in production for more than 11 years," Mr. Sandberg said in an e-mailed statement.

Basically Maple Leaf is claiming that they did all their required cleaning and that the cause was really a design flaw.

Of course prior to the changes that Harper’s government made to food inspection, we would actually know if the cleaning was actually done everyday.

Now under Harper’s deregulation the CFIA food inspectors just read reports and review processes and don’t actually get to verify, as in testing for listeria on the cutting blades right on the floor.

So far 14 deaths have been confirmed to the outbreak and another six are under investigation. In total 38 cases of listeriosis have been confirmed and 22 more are suspected.

Thank you Mr, Harper.

Reference: Globe and Mail here.