Hampton lambastes province on food safety

Ontario boosted the number of full-time provincial meat inspectors from 10 to 107 and even created a chief veterinarian position because a report on food safety, four years ago, recommended it.

But the province didn't follow through on the recommendation to establish a provincial food inspection agency. It also didn't move nearly fast enough to warn the public about the listeriosis outbreak, which has claimed at least five lives, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said yesterday.

"The public needs to know, when did the government know listeriosis had caused a death?" Hampton told reporters at Queen's Park.

But neither charge is fair, the government says, noting that because Maple Leaf Foods sells products outside of Ontario it is a federally inspected facility and outside the provincial inspection system.

Critics like Hampton don't understand that the listeria bacterium occurs naturally and isn't just a problem in tainted meat, Ontario's Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said.

"(Hampton) says the first case was in June. We have cases every month and unfortunately some do die," Williams said in an interview.

The only reason the Maple Leaf Foods outbreak was caught as quickly as it was is because the province has iPHIS, the integrated public health information system, which tracks reportable diseases like listeriosis, West Nile, malaria and tuberculosis, Williams said.

The normal signs of an outbreak simply weren't present, such as numerous cases in one area, he said.

"Those who know this business say that was very fast," Williams said, referring to the time it took the province to track the rise in listeriosis cases in July back to Maple Leaf Foods in mid-August.

The integrated information system was in the works after SARS but was also one of Justice Roland Haines 113 recommendations in his 2004 report following a 2003 food scare.

That year, the province shut down an abattoir near London, Ont. and warned that Aylmer Meat Products weren't safe.

The province has already improved food safety but will "redouble" its efforts because of the Maple Leaf outbreak, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Leona Dombrowsky said.

Of the report's 113 recommendations, 85 were the responsibility of the agriculture ministry, and 71 have been implemented, she said in an interview yesterday.

The government is still considering a food inspection agency but has focused its funding on "the ones that were actually going to deliver results with respect to food safety," Dombrowsky said.

- With files by Rob Ferguson