Canada's Siena Foods falsifies 'best before' dates

Siena Foods Ltd was caught fudging the "best before" dates on ham packages about a month before it had to recall peppercorn salami when samples tested positive for potentially deadly bacteria.

 

Inspection reports from the federal food safety watchdog show the Siena Foods Ltd. meat processing plant in the Kipling Ave. and The Queensway area of Toronto – since closed after filing for bankruptcy – raised a number of concerns for government inspectors last year.

 

The Toronto Star requested the documents under the Access to Information Act after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Siena Foods Ltd. warned the public against consuming its cooked ham and some dried meat products after samples tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes in March.

 

At that time Ontario was experiencing an uptick in the number of people sick with listeriosis and public health officials found the bacteria in the cooked ham shared a genetic fingerprint with two cases that required hospitalisation.

 

The documents for that time period have yet to be released, but the Star did recently receive August-December 2009 inspection reports, which includes a corrective action report for peppercorn salami that also tested positive for listeria on December 3 and was recalled nationwide December 21.

 

Most other problems spotted by inspectors were less serious, including incomplete records, a cracked conveyor belt, ceiling condensation, peeling paint, an employee not wearing his beard net and "a large chunk of pastrami" stuck in the slicer after the production line had switched over to mortadella.

 

One inspector found the company was incorrectly extending the shelf life of Black Forest ham from 56 days to 78 days – over by three weeks – by putting the wrong date on "best before" labels on about 5,500 cartons.

 

A corrective action report issued October 30, 2009 noted someone at the plant told a federal meat inspector that "the product is sent to a storage facility and stored at one degree Celsius and they feel that they can extend the shelf life."

 

That was a problem, because according to the inspection report, the mandatory food safety plan the company submitted to the federal government – called the Hazard Analysis Critical Point (HACCP) plan – says the shelf life of that particular product is 56 days when packaged as a whole and 42 days when sliced.

 

A spokeswoman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it is up to the manufacturer to determine the "durable life dates" – which "refer to product quality, freshness, look and taste, not safety" and are different from expiry dates – but if the shelf life is mentioned in the HACCP plan then it must be followed.

 

The president of the agriculture union at the Public Service Alliance of Canada said changing "best before" dates without following the proper procedures is a frequent occurrence.

 

Siena Foods is owned by a numbered corporation registered in Windsor, Ontario. Industry Canada records show the company filed for bankruptcy on April 24, declaring that it owed US$9.3 million to creditors and had assets worth only US$8.8 million.