None of tested products out for public distribution

Print

E-mail

Text

Positive test results for listeria have surfaced in samples produced at the Maple Leaf Foods plant in North York.

The plant was closed Aug. 20 following a listeria outbreak linked to tainted meat produced at the local facility. The bacteria outbreak left 20 Canadians dead.

The outbreak prompted a recall of thousands of Maple Leaf products and the company launched an investigation and sanitization of the Bartor Road facility, near Hwy. 400 and Wilson Road.

According to a statement released Wednesday, 5,000 product tests have been conducted and there have been four positive findings for listeria monocytogenes. The release also stated that since the plant re-opened on Sept. 17, 841 environmental samples have been taken, yielding one positive test result for listeria.

None of the products made since the re-opening have been distributed to the public. Instead, they are being held in order to confirm the findings of the testing.

"We are being ultra cautious in this facility," Michael McCain, company president and CEO, said this week in a news release.

According to the company and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, listeria is "everywhere in the environment and cannot be eliminated."

Most healthy adults who eat infected food will not become ill or will suffer from flu-like symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea and fever.

However, the elderly, very young, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems are at risk for more severe symptoms including brain or blood infections, which can lead to death.

Symptoms can take as long as 90 days to appear, although they usually occur within about three weeks.

Food contaminated with listeria does not look, smell or taste spoiled.

Maple Leaf is Canada's largest food processor. Last year, its sales of products, such as lunch meats, bacon and fresh chicken, topped $5 billion.