What’s in a label?

Not much, and it’s been shown to be a lousy vehicle for food information, but in the absence of any food safety marketing, it’s one of the only tools available.

Dr. Richard Schabas, Medical Officer of Health for Hastings and Prince Edward (that’s in Ontario, Canada) is calling for federal food inspection changes following a local case of listeriosis this summer that was caused by blue cheese.

Public health officials say the Belleville resident, who went to hospital, became ill after eating some blue cheese purchased at Bibs Wholesale Meats.

Schabas says the store owner had changed the label on the cheese and purchasers did not recognize a recall of the original label, since the cheese wasn’t marked as “re-labelled.”

Schabas met with officials of the Canadian Food Inspection agency this week and is writing to the federal government calling for a requirement that re-labelled products be identified as such.