Two more die as Maple Leaf issues major meat recall

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says two more deaths have been attributed to the ongoing outbreak of listeriosis linked to tainted meat.

The latest deaths bring to six the total number of deaths that federal officials are blaming on the outbreak, all of them in Ontario.

Saying the company was only widening its measures as a precaution, Maple Leaf and its distributors have issued a Canada-wide alert to restaurants, retailers and now individual consumers to pull the potentially listeria-laced meats traced to the Ontario facility from their menus, grocery-store shelves and refrigerators.

For the second day in a row, a grim-faced Michael McCain, president and chief executive of Maple Leaf, addressed the media to answer questions about the effort and convey his regrets to the public.

"This is a terrible, terrible tragedy," he said, "and to those people who have become ill, and to the families that have lost loved ones, I want to express once again my deepest and most sincere sympathies."

The health unit was notified Sunday that an 81-year-old woman living in an assisted care facility is sick from Listeria, a deadly food-borne bacteria spoiling Maple Leaf meat products.

A press conference will be held at 2 p.m. to discuss the case, but officials are not releasing the name of the facility in which the woman resided.