Relatives of the many victims of the Listeria outbreak will be shocked to learn that the Harper Government has aggressively opposed the most rigorous testing for this deadly contaminant.

As reported in the on Aug 29, 2008:

"The Canadian government strongly opposed tougher U.S. rules to prevent listeria and lobbied the United States to accept Canada's more lenient standards, internal documents reveal." ¡¦.."Specifically, Canada opposed daily inspection visits and the testing of finished products for Listeria monocytogenes."

This shameful reality comes amid far reaching changes by the Harper Govenrment to hand over inspections to private companies. On March 31st of this year, the Harper Government dropped rankings of meat packers and processors under pressure from the industry.

The Government's stance on food testing is more troubling because of the concentration of food production at so few companies and facilities. When the recall was announced, hundreds of products under a variety of brands were affected. Consumers realized that products sold under seemingly competing brands were in fact produced by the same manufacturer at the very same plant. When the source of so many products becomes infected, the consequences are wide-reaching and tragic.

Warnings
Listeria has the greatest impact on seniors and hospital patients with weakened immune systems. However, it has been widely reported that nursing homes and hospitals continued to serve processed meat well into the crisis. These facilities should have been immediately instructed to halt serving processed meat to those most at risk. Instead, as the recall list grew, seniors continued to be served potentially contaminated product in nursing homes across Canada.

It is time the Government aimed for higher standards in food safety and ensured that daily testing is part of the food safety program at every major meat plant in Canada.

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