Yet, says Douglas Powell, associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University, the outbreak is an everyday occurrence. “This is a normal day,” he said.

While the Listeriosis crisis remained headline news across Ontario, there was an outbreak last week of salmonella in some cheese in Quebec. One person died and 87 people have fallen ill. This week mushrooms, suspected of carrying the Listeriosis bacteria, were pulled from grocery shelves. Then there were the tomatoes with E. coli that were recalled earlier this year.

So far there are 38 confirmed cases of Listeriosis in Canada, including 29 in Ontario, according to the Public Health Agency. There have been 10 deaths in Ontario. Nineteen cases are under investigation; eight are suspected as Listeriosis. All the confirmed cases live in an institution or were hospitalized.

Listeriosis causes vomiting, nausea, cramps, diarrhea, severe headaches and a persistent fever.

Also being recalled recently were the food scares in 2007 that included tainted spinach, botulism in carrot juice, and, of course, the tainted pet food in cans that were imported from China. In the first half of 2007, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued some 50 food advisories. The World Health Organization states that every year unsafe food is responsible for illnesses in at least two billion people.

Hartwig de Haen, assistant director-general of the economic and social department for WHO, stated that “there are just too many threats to the safety of the world’s food supply, from the farmer’s field, to the consumer’s table.”

The threats include improper handling and storage of food, improper preparation and cooking of food at home or other places. “Food safety regulators of the world need to intensify their collaboration to lessen the burden caused by foodborne disease,” said de Haen.

Powell, a Brantford native, who taught at Guelph University, says short of refusing to eat food, it’s the responsibility of both private businesses and government to tighten their food safety systems, provide needed information to the public and respond even quicker to foodborne illnesses.

He says the federal government has done a horrible job in responding to the Maple Leaf Foods’ crisis, and that the company has done an “okay” job in response, but they could do better.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is responsible for protecting Canada’s food and overseeing all federal inspection services related to food safety, animal and plant disease, in order to enhance food safety. Its responsibilities include the Food and Drugs Act, Meat Inspection Act, Fish Inspection Act, Canadian Food Inspection Act and Consumer Packaging and Labeling Act.

Despite what appears to be a comprehensive list of regulations that the government and food-related businesses have to follow, there remains problems as the Maple Leaf Foods’ incident reveals.

Michael McCain, president of Maple Leaf Foods, told the public that his company’s priority is food safety. The company’s recall of more than 230 items amounted to about 500,000 kilograms of meat, and is expected to cost the company more than $20 million.

But, Powell points out, if the company were truly interested in food safety, it would release the results of the 3,000 Listeriosis swabs it conducts every year and make the results public. He said it would “provide some meaning to your claims that public health is your top priority.”

Powell also urges some kind of warning labels be placed on the meat to inform vulnerable people, such as pregnant women and immunocompromised Canadians they should not eat the product. Listeriosis causes stillbirths in pregnant women.

“Michael McCain, you’ve taken some great first steps and gone way beyond what government has done,” stated Powell in his popular Barfblog, which was posted August 27. “Show me the data. Show anyone the evaluation you’ve done will... ensure Canadians at risk are aware.”

Governments also come under scrutiny by Powell. Federal and provincial public health officials indicate that the tracking system caught the spread of the bacteria in a timely manner; Powell calls that nonsense.

Cases of Listeriosis were identified in June and early July. Ontario’s public health officials first became aware of a problem July 25. They issued warnings to public health units in early August and informed the public on August 20. The first warnings, said Powell, went out to distributors, not to the public.

David C. Williams, Ontario’s acting chief medical officer of health, stated last week the outbreak would have been “very hard” to detect under the province’s old paper-based system because Listeriosis cases were spread across Ontario.

Since the 2003 SARS outbreak that claimed 44 lives, all information is placed in an integrated computer database that is available to all public health officials, said Mark Neswww.

bitt, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

He said provincial health officials noticed a “spike” in the number of Listeriosis cases in July. The Toronto public health unit did some more digging and found two cases in long-term care facilities. Like something out of an episode of CSI, said Nesbitt, health officials began testing food samples, eliminating possible sources and eventually traced it back to the deli meats.

“It was then an alert went out to all public health units,” he said. “(The investigation) was incredibly fast. It is usually difficult to track down a foodborne disease.”

Nesbitt said the decision was made to “pull the stuff” off all long-term health care facilities’ shelves.

It wasn’t until later that the recall of deli meats from grocery stores and other restaurants was made, he said. The reason was the tainted meat was only found in the large two-to five-kg. containers of meat specifically packaged for use in long-term health facilities, where all the cases of Listeriosis have been identified.

“The system worked well,” said Nesbitt. “People should be confident of the safety of their food.”

“Tell that to the families with dead relatives,” responds Powell.

He points out governments should have notified the public earlier when the spike in the bacteria was discovered in July. He is also calling on the federal government to follow the lead of the U. S. Food and Drug Administration to issue pictures of recalled food to make sure the public is properly aware of the products involved.

The U. S. Center for Disease Control, for instance, urges people not to eat hot dogs, luncheon or deli meat unless they are reheated.

“Consumers can handle more, not less information about the food they eat,” said Powell.