Personal Injury Law

Canadian Listeria Deaths Hit 15 Linked to Maple Leaf Meats

By Bill Marler, Esq.

My wife and 16-year-old daughter spent the week at the Democratic National Convention.  Me, I took our other 13-year-old and 9-year-old daughters to Hawaii for a few days in the surf and sun.  Yes, we did go to a laua - picture below the main course.

OK, I get asked all the time what I eat and do not eat - yes, I ate it.  My kids, however, kept asking why they killed and cooked Wilbur?  So, a little bit of an experiment in food illness surveillance?  It has been 48 hours since I ate Wilbur, let's see how it goes.  If the pig is contaminated with listeria, I have a long time to wait with the incubation period running up to a month. 

As the Canadian Public Health Agency says, 29 cases of listeriosis have been confirmed nationally, and another 31 suspected cases are being investigated.  Maple Leaf, the manufacturer of the contaminated product, has ordered the return of all products made at the plant from nursing homes, hospitals, restaurants and stores, in one of Canada's biggest food recalls.  For more information on Listeria, see www.about-listeria.com.

And for more worries North of the border, Salmonella kills one, leaves 87 ill in Quebec
Cheese Recall.  A salmonella outbreak in Quebec has left one person dead and 87 others sick, prompting the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to recall three cheeses manufactured by Fromages La Chaudiere Inc.  Blocks of hard cheese, as well as cheese curds labelled La Chaudiere, Polo and Tradition, manufactured between July 24 and Aug. 24, have been pulled off store shelves as they may be contaminated with salmonella.  The outbreak has centred in three regions of Quebec -- Chaudiere Appalaches, Estrie and Mauricie Centre du Quebec -- but the cheeses have a wide distribution throughout the province, Horacio Arruda, Quebec's director of public health, said in a news conference yesterday in Montreal.  Over the past week, a total of six cheeses have been pulled from store shelves across the province. In addition to the three cheeses recalled on Thursday, three other cheeses were recalled earlier this week because they may contain listeria.  For more information on salmonella, see www.about-salmonella.com.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on August 30, 2008 (boomark / email).