August 7, 2009

Maple Leaf in Stoney Creek, Ontario has resumed producing hotdogs despite a countrywide recall after samples tested positive for Listeria.

 

Company spokesperson Linda Smith said hotdogs produced from the plant - which was temporarily shut down - will be fully tested before being sold in the stores.

 

That hold-and-release system will be in place for the next four weeks.

 

Maple Leaf issued a recall notice for nine varieties of wieners Monday (August 3), just weeks shy of the first anniversary of a devastating listeriosis outbreak. Twenty-two people, including two in Hamilton, died after eating Maple Leaf deli meat last year.

 

The latest recall is for hotdogs produced under the Hygrade, Shopsy's and Maple Leaf brands. The company isn't saying how many packages fall under the recall.

 

Maple Leaf says the measure is precautionary only as bacteria levels are very low and there have been no reported illnesses.

 

Smith said swab tests of surfaces on the line first indicated a "routine positive" for the Listeria bacteria on July 14. Twenty days later, sample tests of hotdogs by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the presence of the bacteria.

 

Current testing methods and backlogs at federal laboratories mean product testing routinely takes two weeks or more. In the meantime, the products are being bought and eaten by consumers.

 

Maple Leaf and other producers are pushing the federal government to approve tests commonly used in the United States and Europe that sample products before they leave the plant.

 

The Stoney Creek Maple Leaf plant, which employs 265 people, was the source of another hotdog recall in February. Maple Leaf recalled 26,000 packages of wieners that were mistakenly shipped after preliminary listeria tests proved positive.

 

Listeria is a common bacteria found in soil, plants, water, the digestive tracts of humans and other warm-blooded animals and in unprocessed foods of animal origins such as raw milk, meat, poultry and fish.

 

One strain, Listeria monocytogenes, is considered harmful to humans, especially pregnant women, the very young and old and those with compromised immune systems. Proper cooking destroys the bacteria.

 

Listeria monocytogenes is widespread and can live a very long time on surfaces, says Mansel Griffiths, a food science professor at the University of Guelph and a director of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety.

 

Smith said the bacteria are present at low levels in 1 in 200 packages of meat found in grocery stores.

 

That comes out of the 2008 outbreak in which high concentrations of listeria were found in deli meat produced at a Toronto plant.

 

This recall could be quite damaging to Maple Leaf, says Dilip Soman, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, stating that "people are forgiving once but twice is too many".

 

He says the "buffer of goodwill" from the company's candid and quick action last year may have disappeared, especially in the face of concern over other public health issues such as swine flu.