Establishment 38 & E. coli O157:H7
The increasingly Orwellian nature of our Food System
"All products currently at this plant are under CFIA detention and control."
~from the Statement on E. coli O157:H7 Investigation by the CFIA, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Establishment 38 is not a lunar outpost operated by Weyland-Yutani. It is a slaughterhouse and meat processing plant in Brooks, Alberta, operated by XL Foods Inc. The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) has suspended the operating license of Establishment 38 because of the detected presence of E. coli O157:H7. Another food recall, this one crossing almost all provincial borders, is today's sobering headline reality. While the scientists, researchers and investigators of the CFIA have E. coli O157:H7 under the microscope, Canadians have also placed Canada's food safety system on a slide and we're collectively scrutinizing how we got ourselves into such a pickle.
Our massively complex global food system involves billions of supply chain transactions daily.
The relationship with the consumer has evolved and citizens must diligently participate in the food equation in order to prevent food borne illnesses. But, do we have the skills to be active participants in a food system we interact with on multiple occasions daily?
Certainly independent and arms length inspection of food production and processing should be the standard, but it isn't. Consumers would consider a scenario where movie producers critique their own films to be unacceptable. The same logic applies to our food. We require unbiased and scientific analysis of our food production, processing, packaging, distribution, retailing and preparation facilities and institutions, yet this does not exist, even remotely, in any manner that could be safely termed failsafe.
We cannot rely solely on slaughterhouses/processors like XL Beef and Cargill (the two largest processors in Canada) to ensure food safety. They are, for the most part, self regulated. We cannot rely on the CFIA, as they only monitor processors-reported-data and conduct random testing. We cannot rely on the retailers, as they are not presently equipped for such stringent analysis of our food. In fact, there are no guarantees associated with our food and its safety. Such is the landscape of food production and consumption in the 21st century for the majority of Canadians.
Wait... No guarantees around the safety of food consumed by Canadians? This is the grim reality of our highly industrialized food system which presently feeds 99 out of 100 Canadians.
Where's the safety?
The very real scenario of a massive beef recall involving millions of pounds of processed and packaged beef is upon us, again. It illustrates the precarious nature of an industrial food system and its unstable relationship with food safety. Three Billion pounds of beef are processed in Canada every year. It ends up on our plates in a variety of products. The trust we have in our food to be safe from pathogens rests with the food industry. This is a huge responsibility borne by numerous agencies, producers, processors & retailers. Whenever & wherever food is handled, it is vulnerable to pathogens and contamination. Many Canadians are unfamiliar with even basic food handling protocols. The industrial food system has become so ubiquitous and efficient, we only think about food when we are hungry. A chasm exists in the minds of Canadians as to where our food comes from and how seemingly, it magically appears on our plates.
Intrinsic in a system that operates at such a scale is failure. There appears to be significant gaps in precision control of the present food safety system. Without a coordinated national and provincial strategy on food safety, the system will continue to only manage the risk. The objective should be the eradication of pathogen risk to the consumer, but this is an epic target for a complex food system that feeds 35 Million Canadians daily. The simple existence of so many variables based on the variety in the food chain dictate that we will continue to see an increase in food borne illness as our consumption levels increase annually. As consumers, in the absence of a meticulously coordinated national food safety strategy, we must do everything in our power to eliminate errors in food handling where we have the final say... in our own kitchens. Apart from that hyper controlled environment, we must default to trust in a system that continues to expose its weaknesses and subsequent inherent dangers to the populace. As the end user, we have a responsibility to demand that all the players in the food system communicate, strategise and implement a vastly superior food safety regimen to the one that is presently failing Canadians.
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I have also heard that it is not in the interest of the companies to poison off their customers and intuitively this sounds right. Yet when it comes to self inspections this does not appear to be the case. The profit side of corporations seems to override the mandate of protecting the customer.
it is just you and me ....and i guess the others he doesn't consider friends and family he hates
XL foods and CFIA obviously decided that would be too large a scale.
In both cases the contamination was identified and traced to the plant.
One company chose to recall everything and have the premises inspected before going into production.
With XL foods the recall stretched over a month and when you read the almost daily additions at what passes for a food inspection agency you get the idea.
I have to believe this has nothing to do with safety and a lot to do with profit margins. XL recalled it when they had to.
the CFSA is comprised of supporters who range from meat processors to produce associations like the Holland Marsh Growers Association. We continue to attract supporters on an ongoing basis from the agricultural, retail, health and food processing sectors that support a preventative on-farm program to mitigate the impacts of E. coli O157 contamination.
Supported by the processors....nuff said
My daughter had hemolytic uremic syndrome from E.coli 0157:H7 back in 1986. She was on peritoneal dialysis as a result and almost died She was 18 months old. The source was never found. I was shocked when the Harper government made cuts to the CFIA in the past year. Ridiculous. People have to wake up and take back control of their food and lives.
People need to demand from their food retailer that they get back to in-store meat cutting. This way if there is an outbreak it contained to a much smaller area.
The mega-processors want you to demand more inspection because it's just going to clear out all those pesky little inefficient independent butchers.
Over-the-counter drugs also cause many deaths. Every year, more than 1,200 Canadians die from misuse of ordinary aspirin and Ibuprofen. Tylenol is the cause of tens of hundreds of hospital admissions and about a hundred deaths annually in Canada.
While it is estimated that each year some 11 million plus cases of food poisoning occur in Canada (1 in 3 persons in the country with poor cooking practices, improper storage and personal hygiene being the principle causes with vegetable contamination causing illness @ ratio of 25 to 1 over meat), the worst year for known food poisoning deaths in Canada's history was the Maple Leaf listeriosis case in 2008 - when 22 died.
There is an entire flu vaccination industry dependent upon the symptoms of minor food borne poisoning to make people believe that the flu is what made them sick so they will get a flu shot.
In the face of reality, I would prefer to further regulate and hold accountable the white coat drug pushers and big pharma if my goal is to actually save more lives.