TORONTO -- Canada's food inspection system, under scrutiny amid a massive meat recall and a listeriosis outbreak that's killed at least five people, was absolved of blame Wednesday by the president of embattled meat giant Maple Leaf Foods and defended by the minister of agriculture.
Michael McCain -- the Maple Leaf chief executive whose abject apology has been playing in television commercials across Canada for nearly a week -- said both the recall and the responsibility for fixing it are for his company to bear alone.
Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain addresses the media, saying the food-inspection system is not to blame for the listeriosis that has killed at least five people.
"I reiterate: the buck stops right here," McCain told a news conference at company headquarters in Toronto.
Just two hours later, Agriculture and Agri-Foods Minister Gerry Ritz dismissed a media report suggesting federal inspectors at a Toronto processing plant where the Listeria-tainted meat originated were mired in paperwork and not on the production floor.
"We are saying that's not true," Ritz said of the report. "About 50 per cent of an inspector's time is spent on the floor of the plant; the other 50 per cent is overseeing paperwork, most of it scientific in nature -- test results and the like."
With the drumbeats of a looming election campaign growing ever louder, Ritz insisted the Conservatives have done nothing to impair the government's ability to ensure Canadians have safe food to eat.
"We're concerned with the safety of the food supply and Canadian consumers," he said. "There is no valid argument whatsoever that there's been cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency."
Ritz reiterated federal plans to invest $113 million in the food-inspection system and the hiring of 200 inspectors with more on the way.
Late Wednesday, the CFIA and Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. issued yet another recall warning -- this one about Kirkland Signature brand meat-and-cheese platters that may contain meat products already recalled by Maple Leaf.
The latest recall applies to Kirkland Signature brand Croissant Platters (UPC 0 00000 29048 7) and Meat & Cheese Platters (UPC 0 0000 10683 2) carrying best-before dates up to and including Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, respectively, and sold through Costco Wholesale outlets across Canada.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the platters, the CFIA said in a release.
The ranks of Canadians who are joining class-action lawsuits against the 100-year-old meat packer continued to swell Wednesday even as the number of deaths being blamed conclusively on the outbreak dwindled slightly, down to five from six the day before.
Tony Merchant, a lawyer heading a class action for Merchant Law Group based in Regina, said more than 1,450 individuals had joined the suit as of Wednesday afternoon.
Ten deaths, all of them linked to the outbreak, remain under investigation to determine if they were caused by a bacterial infection.
Some 29 confirmed cases exist across Canada -- 22 in Ontario, four in B.C., one in Saskatchewan and two in Quebec -- while an additional 30 cases remain classified as "suspect."
McCain said the company's recall extended beyond those products that had tested positive for the Listeria bacterium, and that the company contacted all of its direct customers and warehouses and some 87 per cent of warehouses in the Canadian food chain.
"This week, it's our best efforts that failed, not the regulators or the Canadian food safety system," McCain said.
"I emphasize: this is our accountability and it's ours to fix, which we are taking on fully. We have and we continue to improve on our action plans."
It remained unclear Wednesday when the Toronto plant at the heart of the outbreak, which was scheduled to resume production today, would reopen, McCain said.
"We will not restart the plant until this investigation is complete, and I've signed off on it personally," he said.
-- The Canadian Press
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