Contamination in Maple Leaf Products?
If you think back of the summer in 2008, remember the contamination found in Maple Leaf Products? Yes that’s right, it was Listeriosis. The Listeriosis victims and families are now waiting for compensation after they have been sick from eating tainted meat. This largest food recall outbreak in Canada happened three years ago killing about 23 people and injuring many more. The victims were contaminated with the bacterium Listeria. One of the victim’s daughters, Francis Clark, reported viewing her mother became short of breath and suffering from the illness. The settlement for these victims was out-of-court and was declared in January 2009. Michael McCain, CEP and president of Maple Leaf, payed about up to $27 million to the victims suffering from Listeriosis in the summer of 2008. None of the victims have received the money yet due the to the wait for Court approval.
Source from CBC News
“The reason for the settlement was two-fold: the families didn’t want to go through a long, drawn-out court case, which only increases the hurt and the agony and pain as the result of somebody’s death.
“And in fairness to the company involved, it didn’t want to go through a long, drawn-out court case that’s going to be bad for its reputation and costly. So you come to a settlement — but a settlement so that the money can get out there in a timely way. And this long after the fact is not timely at all.”
Source from The Vancouver Sun
The symptoms of Listeriosis would commonly appear after two to 30 days after the consumption of the product. However, it can also take up to 90 days for the symptoms to show. The average age of the people who were diagnosed with Listeriosis was 67. The Maple Leaf products is served widely among residential homes or elderlies. Young children, pregnant women, and elders are most vulnerable to getting sick due to their weak immune system.
McCain apologized to those victims and families. The company took full responsibility of their actions and this has saved their reputation as they confronted the situation heads-on rather than putting blames on others.
Source from The Globe and Mail
Listeriosis is the disease caused by Listeria monocytogenese. This bacterium exists in natural environment. The products that are contaminated with Listeria are hard to be detected. Thus to prevent the disease from further harming people, food product including farm products must be carefully detected by food inspection.
Source from Wikipedia
I believe we have to watch out for what we eat and beware there are more bacteria out there that could harm or even lead to severe illnesses. The best way to prevent any contaminations is to simply wash the raw food material thoroughly with water and avoid eating raw meat. Keeping up with the current events will also help us stay alert.
Videos on Listeriosis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_S5d6OQCBM
Further Resources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2011/06/23/f-listeria-faq.html
References:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/10/08/pol-listeriosis-claim-payments.html
October 15th, 2011 at 9:56 am
News like this makes me wonder how safe is our food that we buy from huge manufacturers. They are supposed to be trust-worthy and sanitized but yet they seem to have hiccups that are so detrimental.
October 17th, 2011 at 8:13 pm
This post reminds me of how susceptible and fragile humans are to disease. Especially since many of our packaged foods are imported internationally, one minor hiccup (as Hannah pointed out) could affect the entire world’s population.
October 21st, 2011 at 9:45 pm
So much of the world’s food is controlled by just a few giant companies. I can’t find the stat at the moment, but the portion of the planet’s food produced by Nestle alone is unbelievable. [Something like 25% if I remember correctly — if anyone knows for sure, please post.]