Michael N. Dundas

I as most in Canada have been following Maple Leaf Foods and the listeriosis outbreak. I drive approximately an hour for work 3 or 4 times per week and usually listen to CBC. Along with reading a few news articles on the web has allowed me to keep up with the public version of events.

Michael McCain really impressed me. His public apology was probably the most genuine and sincere I have ever seen from a CEO. I think a lot of businesses could learn from him. I suppose that it could all be staged, but regardless it was a nice change from what a business typically does when they are the center of an issue with negative tones.

I was reading about a press conference Michael McCain gave on August 27th and suddenly something didn’t make sense. Michael McCain said that Maple Leaf should bear all the costs and responsibilities of the outbreak. Specifically:

“I absolutely do not believe this is a failure of the Canadian food safety system or the regulators,” he said at a news conference in Toronto on Wednesday afternoon. “Certainly knowing there is a desire to assign blame, I want to reiterate that the buck stops here.”

Contrast McCain’s statement with an Interview on CBC (podcast of Interview is here) on August 25th with Linda Smith, a spokesperson for Maple Leaf Foods. Throughout her interview Linda Smith ensured the public that Maple Leaf Foods followed the protocols of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada exactly and never deviated from them. Comments in the interview included:

• manage exactly to the CFIA protocol
• manage to absolute exactitude
• We live and breath those protocols and have never deviated from those protocols
• All facilities follow to an exactitude the Heath Canada’s management protocols
• We did everything that we are suppose to do
• Moving forward going beyond protocols and testing all products. With a hold and release procedure
• Followed the food safety standards to the letter or exceeded those requirements.

I am not a food services expert, but common sense dictates that either Michael McCain or Linda Smith must be mistaken. If Maple Leaf Foods did follow all the protocols then there is obviously a problem with the protocols and they need to be reviewed at a government level. If Maple Leaf Foods didn’t follow the protocols, then Linda Smith is mistaken. So which one is correct?

UPDATE:
Post on how the CFIA is still continuing a plan to lower inspection requirements for domestic meat products.