CANADA-FOOD POISONING SCANDAL.
Food agency chief under fire at listeriosis probe
The president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was grilled on Monday by a parliamentary committee in Ottawa over the agency’s public role during last summer’s deadly listeriosis outbreak.
Tainted meat from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto was linked to the deaths of 22 people, and hundreds of other people became ill, leading to the largest food recall in Canadian history.
The CFIA, which had been present at the beginning of the crisis, largely grew silent as the listeriosis outbreak in Canada’s meat products spread.
In contrast, Michael McCain, the head of Maple Leaf Foods, whose company put out the listeria-tainted meat products, emerged as the face of food safety through commercials, news conferences and YouTube video clips on the internet.
In its recent assessment of the crisis, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health wrote that it would have been "more appropriate to have a government spokesperson take the lead in communicating with the media and public."