Original listeria contamination was intense

by Wordsnark | October 10, 2008 at 05:20 am

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Original listeria contamination was intense : the most vulnerable were at greatest risk

Health authorities tracking the listeriosis outbreak in August were astonished to discover the extent and instensity of contamination in samples collected from nursing homes and hospitals. It was these findings that prompted Maple Leaf Foods to begin its product recall on August 17.

The Ontario Ministry of Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in mid-August ordered public health units across the province to collect samples of processed meats such as turkey, ham and roast beef as part of the investigation into the outbreak. A federal government source confirmed Wednesday that half of the samples tested positive for listeria, and Toronto was a hot spot.

Toronto Public Health inspectors collected 26 samples from nursing homes, hospitals and HIV/AIDS hospices on Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. Seventeen of those samples — roughly two-thirds of the total — tested positive for a dangerous strain of listeria.

"There shouldn't be any positives," said Rick Holley, a microbiologist who teaches at the University of Manitoba. "The reality is if you did a survey in the market, you might find one or two at most out of this sample [size] that are positive.… And it is a particularly virulent strain of listeria. It's one of the bad ones."