Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star continues his excellent reporting on the Maple Leaf Foods listeria outbreak in Canada that has killed at least 20, and based on e-mails from the company’s CEO and president, Michael McCain (right, exactly as shown), I’m struck that the head of a $5 billion a year company that sells food is so whiney about food safety.

McCain blames the media for making a big deal out of the story, blames lawyers for being ambulance chasers, and says that,

"Eradicating listeria from a plant is akin to eradicating the flu from the office — we have best practice systems in place to reduce it to the absolute lowest level because it’s our reputation at stake, but eradication is just not possible."

So shouldn’t you warn those who are most vulnerable? Like pregnant women and old people?

The entire story is a good read, and it’s based on internal memos that McCain sent to thousands of staff (and which were regularly forwarded to me throughout the outbreak) but the most damning excerpt is this:

"I, for one, can say I’ve learned more in the past three weeks about (food safety) than I have ever learned before in my lifetime."

A company selling over $5 billion a year and bragging about it’s culture of food safety should be doing better than on-the-job training.