Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

Listeriosis probe identifies multiple deficiencies

Christopher Mason
CMAJ September 01, 2009 181 (5) E88-E89; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3001
Christopher Mason
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Last year’s deadly listeriosis outbreak was largely caused by inadequate reporting requirements, insufficient coordination of government departments and a failure to properly communicate to Canadians how to minimize the risk of becoming sick, says a report released yesterday by an independent investigator.

The report, ordered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, concluded a 6-month investigation into the outbreak by Sheila Weatherill, former president of the Edmonton Health Authority.

Weatherill paints a picture of a food safety system that contained gaps at nearly every level from prevention to reporting and to the emergency response protocol.

The gaps consisted of missing reporting requirements for meat processors, a food safety worker shortage and several government agencies that did not clearly understand how they were to work together to prevent or minimize an outbreak.

“The food safety system did not work as perfectly as it needed to,” Weatherill said at a press conference. “Much more must be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The outbreak, which became public in August, 2008, occurred in a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto, Ontario and eventually killed 22 Canadians and infected many others. Weatherill found that nearly 80% of those infected by the illness lived in long-term care homes or were in hospitals that served tainted meats.

Evidence of contamination was available months before the outbreak occurred, but there was insufficient monitoring and no legal obligation to report the contamination. Maple Leaf has since apologized, agreed to pay up to $27 million to settle class-action lawsuits and introduced more rigorous testing at its plants.

Weatherill’s report recommends that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and not the federal Agriculture Minister, take charge of communications during an outbreak because citizens prefer to hear from health officials, and not politicians, during a health crisis.

Figure
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's appointed listeriosis investigator says meat processing companies should be obliged to alert the federal government to health threats. Image courtesy of Photos.com

Consolidating public health response under one agency has been a key recommendation of reports dating back to the 2003 SARS outbreak.

“This is not a new story,” says Dr. Kumanan Wilson, Canadian Research Chair in Public Health Policy at the University of Ottawa. “These aren’t new concepts or new themes, so why do they remain persistent problems?”

He adds that it was especially crucial to hear from public health officials because the listeria outbreak had economic implications on the meat industry, and occurred on the eve of a federal election. “That’s even more reason that we need to know this is being managed from a public health perspective and not a political, economic or other perspective.”

Coordinating communications under one agency is also necessary because, the report says, the government did a poor job of informing the public about the outbreak. Despite the fact that such a large proportion of those infected were elderly and in long-term care homes or hospitals, many Canadians did not know which segments of the population were at risk or which foods to avoid.

In all, Weatherill’s report makes 57 recommendations to prevent a similar outbreak from occurring again. Broadly, they reflect Weatherill’s findings that there was an insufficient focus on food safety among senior management in both the public and private sectors, not enough advance planning was done to leave both sectors ready in the event of an outbreak and that the responsible agencies lacked a sense of urgency at the outset of the outbreak.

“There are simply no easy answers,” Weatherill said. “Last summer’s outbreak was a rare and complex event that defies simple explanations.”

Specifically, Weatherill recommends that meat processors be required to report health threats to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, rather than the voluntary reporting mechanism in place at the time of the outbreak.

The report states meat processors need to work more closely with equipment manufacturers so that cleaning protocols and product design reflect the need to improve sanitation.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency should conduct a third party audit to determine the appropriate number of inspectors the agency needs, how many plants an inspector can safely be responsible for and also identify training needs, the report adds.

Weatherill’s mandate did not allow her to express findings of criminal or civil liability.

The investigation is among a series that have been conducted into the outbreak, including ones by the food inspection agency, Health Canada and PHAC, which all found that poor coordination of food safety was a significant reason behind the outbreak.

Opposition members of parliament on a House of Commons subcommittee studying food safety have called for a public inquiry into the outbreak.

At a brief news conference, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz called the report a “road map” for improving Canada’s food safety system and said the federal government will not compensate the families of listeriosis victims.

Weatherill’s report asks the federal government to report back to Canadians within 2 years on the implementation of its recommendations.

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 181 (5)
CMAJ
Vol. 181, Issue 5
1 Sep 2009
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Listeriosis probe identifies multiple deficiencies
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Listeriosis probe identifies multiple deficiencies
Christopher Mason
CMAJ Sep 2009, 181 (5) E88-E89; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3001

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Listeriosis probe identifies multiple deficiencies
Christopher Mason
CMAJ Sep 2009, 181 (5) E88-E89; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3001
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Monkeypox: tracking the global health emergency
  • Making sense of monkeypox death rates
  • Providing abortions to Americans could land Canadian doctors in legal trouble — without CMPA assistance
Show more News

Similar Articles

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • CPD credits
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
  • Accessibiity
  • CMA Civility Standards
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2022, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

Powered by HighWire