There was this time about 15 years ago, and I was the scientific advisor for a group of food safety heads at Canadian supermarkets. We’d met once or twice a year, and the first four hours would be devoted to, no one takes my job seriously unless there’s an outbreak.
I could relate.
I guess they kept me on because we did good work when BSE was discovered in Canada in 2003: the only country where beef consumption increased after a mad cow disease warning, partly due to me standing in the snow at 6 am on a Guelph street doing national TV, lots due to Sarah and her team managing the phone lines and providing me with soundbites.
I get the sense Loblaws and its various spin-offs aren’t so vigilant
The picture of the tail end of a mouse — visible through the plastic bag surrounding a loaf of D’Italiano bread in a shopping cart — was posted to the website Reddit on Wednesday. The photo had attracted more than 180 comments by the next day.
In a statement, Loblaws public relations director Karen Gumbs apologized to customers — but also assured them the city’s public health department checked out the No Frills location and has “no concerns.”
“The store has taken a number of steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again, including working closely with their third-party pest control team, and inspecting bakery items daily,” she said.
Historian Madeleine Ferrieres, until recently Professor of Modern History at the University of Avignon and the author of my favorite food book, 2002’s Mad Cow, Sacred Cow, said in a recent interview, “we still live with the illusion of modernity, with the false idea that what happens to us is new and unbearable. These are not risks that have arisen, but our consumer behavior has changed.”
What’s new is better tools to detect fraud, which also presents an opportunity: those who use the real deal should be able to prove it through DNA testing and brag about it.
The days of faith-based food safety are coming to a protracted close.
As Ferrieres wrote in her book,
“All human beings before us questioned the contents of their plates. … And we are often too blinded by this amnesia to view our presents food situation clearly. This amnesia is very convenient. It allows us to reinvent the past and construct a complaisant, retrospective mythology.”
I’ve quoted those words before, but increasingly find myself reinventing the past.
That’s OK, just sorta boring, so I coach and play hockey.
CBC’s (that’s the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and it’s in Canada) Marketplace, which has always had a flair for the dramatic, broadcast an episode tonight about labeling, mis-labeling, and food fraud.
They interviewed me about 2 am my time today, probably as a follow-up; I tried to shift to a broader discussion, they were more interested in gotcha-style; bottom line, all food purchases are faith-based, no matter how well you think you know a farmer, and food fraud has been going on as long as people have sold food.
Supermarket workers are speaking out to CBC’s Marketplace about how stores tamper with best-before dates and how it can make food unsafe.
For five years, Mohammad Saffari has worked as a bakery clerk at a Loblaws store in Montreal. He says he was told to change best-before dates on fresh or frozen bakery items such as cheesecakes, muffins and pastries that were weeks or months past the best-before date.
Saffari says he was told to take cheesecakes that had passed their best-before dates and add toppings, so they would appear fresh.
He says cakes were then given a new best-before date and put back on the shelves for sale.
“I decorate it and I’m selling expired stuff for $13.99,” he says. “I won’t eat this cheesecake myself. But I sell it to you.”
‘You think other stores don’t do it?’
Saffari approached Marketplace after he became frustrated with being asked to change dates. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” he says. “I was on sick leave for three to four months because of the pressure; because what you’re doing you’re not proud of and you’re forced to do it.”
After speaking up about this on a number of occasions, Saffari decided to secretly record a conversation with his supervisor where he asks about the practice. He shared the recording with Marketplace.
“Every store does the same f—ing thing. You think other stores don’t do it?” the supervisor says on tape.
“Everyone f—s with the dates, Mo. Because at the end of the year, the managers, their bonus, you understand?”
In an email, Johanne Héroux, a senior director at Loblaws, told Marketplace:
“As a company, we are fully committed to upholding the highest standards in terms of product quality and safety. We have strict protocols in place to ensure their application across all our stores and departments.
“As for the store-specific allegations brought to our attention and in accordance with our zero tolerance policy regarding actions that jeopardize the safety and quality of our products, an investigation was undertaken immediately. Necessary actions will be taken upon completion of the ongoing investigation.”
Problems industry-wide
But Saffari is only one of a number of former and current supermarket employees who spoke out about how supermarkets change best-before dates.
Marketplace heard from people who have worked in the bakery, meat and produce departments of a number of different grocery stores, both chains and independent. They described a number of tricks that supermarkets employ to make food appear fresh.
These tactics include grinding old meat with fresher meat, marinating old meat in sauces that mask the smell, cutting mould off fruit and vegetables for party trays, and cutting cakes in half to facilitate a faster sale after the best-before has passed.
One insider also says his store took meat that had gone brown from sitting out, and dipped it in blood to make it look redder. Others said they would take mouldy fruit off custard tarts, replace it and glaze it to make it look fresh.
In each of these cases, food was put out with new best-before dates that significantly extended the shelf life.
Food treated this way can harbour microbes that can make you sick, says Keith Warriner, a microbiologist at the University of Guelph.
Best-before dates aren’t a guarantee that food is safe to eat. Other factors, such as the way food is stored, can make a big difference.
For dry food, such as cookies, crackers and pasta, best-before dates are a guarantee of freshness and flavour, and don’t mean that food past that date is unsafe to eat.
So how do you know that the food you’re buying is fresh? Employees recommend buying meat from the back of the shelf, and avoiding pre-marinated or cut foods. They also suggest buying whole cakes, pies and tarts.
Agriculture types eventually traced the filberts to an Oregon packer, who refused to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a list of its farmer suppliers the agency requested.
The statements by the growers and packers involved with producing hazelnuts were textbook examples of what not to do when foodborne illness is linked to a food product.
Polly Owen, manager of the Oregon Hazelnut Marketing Board, said most producers would prefer not to be visited by regulators from the FDA, but the decision whether to turn over supplier lists is ultimately up to handlers, adding, “We’re not going to try to tell any industry packer what they need to do.”
Someone should, because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found Salmonella in filberts sold by retailing giant Loblaws.
The affected filberts, product of USA, were sold in 454 g bags bearing UPC7 75636 10004 1 and in bulk bins.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.
I didn’t write the headline, but this is now running in the Toronto Star, regarding the article, Low blow from Loblaw boss gets farmers’ goat, Feb. 8.
It’s not that a grocery mogul told the Canadian Food Summit that “one day, (farmers’ markets) are going to kill some people,” it’s that no one in the farmers’ market community responded with any kind of microbiological food safety comment, resorting instead to: trust us and we’re inspected.
Robert Chorney, the executive director of Farmers’ Markets Ontario, promoted a few food safety myths of his own, saying that markets are regularly inspected and food is easily traceable because consumers know who they’re buying from.
Inspections don’t mean much. And just because someone drives to the Food Terminal in Toronto to load up on produce at 3 a.m. and then sell it at a premium at the local market adds nothing to traceability.
Pointing to surveys showing consumers think food at farmers’ markets is safer means nothing regarding the actual microbiological safety of any food. And surveys suck.
When I go to a farmer’s market or a megalomarket run by the Westons, I ask questions about the quality of irrigation water, what kind of soil amendments are used, and employee handwashing programs. I ask about microbial test strategies and results as verification that the farmer, whether she bought it from the Food Terminal or grew it herself, has a clue about dangerous micro-organisms.
Most answer with variations of trust me. There’s already enough faith-based food safety out there.
I don’t care if it’s a farmers’ market or Loblaws: provide evidence that the food you’re flogging is microbiologically safe. The best producers and retailers will market food safety at retail.
Regardless of size, production method or retail experience, providers either know about microbial food safety risks and take serious steps to control those risks — or they don’t.
Dr. Douglas Powell, professor, food safety, Kansas State University
It’s not that a grocery mogul told a supposed food safety conference that “one day, (farmers’ markets) are going to kill somebody;” it’s that no one in the farmer’s market community responded with any kind of microbiological food safety comment, resorting instead to, trust us and we’re inspected.
The Toronto Star reports mega-billionaire Galen-hey-now-Weston (right, exactly as shown), head of Canadian mega-grocer Loblaws, with over 1,000 stores, told the Canadian Food Summit yesterday, "Farmers’ markets are great … One day they’re going to kill some people, though. I’m just saying that to be dramatic, though.”
Robert Chorney, the executive director of Farmers’ Markets Ontario, responded, "We strenuously object" to Weston’s remark. That was awful."
Ontario’s 175 farmers’ markets do more than $700 million in sales every year. Chorney promoted a few food safety myths of his own, saying that markets are regularly inspected and food is easily traceable because consumers know who they’re buying from.
Inspections don’t mean much. And just because someone drives to the Food Terminal in Toronto to load up on produce at 3 a.m. and then sell it at a premium at the local market adds nothing to traceability.
“The association said that four surveys since 1998 have shown that 83 per cent of respondents feel market food is as safe or safer than supermarket food.”
Surveys suck; people’s perceptions often have no basis in reality.
"A question for Galen Weston Jr: Have you ever been to a farmers’ market?" tweeted Gail Gordon Oliver, publisher and editor of Edible Toronto. "Have you ever REALLY spoken to a farmer?"
I have. And I ask questions. Like quality of irrigation water, what kind of shit soil amendments are used, and employee handwashing programs. I ask about microbial test strategies and results as verification that the farmer, whether she bought it from the Food Terminal or grew it herself, has a clue about dangerous microorganisms. Most answer with variations of, trust me.
There’s already enough faith-based food safety out there.
“Some delegates whispered among themselves on coffee breaks that supermarkets sell most of the food that’s recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).”
That’s because supermarkets sell most of the food that is consumed in Canada.
“Farmers’ Markets Ontario works with Ontario’s 36 public health units, each of which has a champion responsible for markets. It has a food safety manual on its website.”
A manual? Awesome, my faith is restored.
I don’t care if it’s a farmer’s market or the Loblaws megalomart: provide evidence that the food you’re flogging is microbiologically safe. The best producers and retailers will market food safety at retail. People want it, that’s one reason they go to markets and buy all sorts of weird categories of food, but it’s not safer; it’s hucksterism.
And being a big company like Maple Leaf of 2008 listeria-in-cold-cuts fame that killed 23 Canadians is no guarantee or even hint that microbiological food safety matters. Regardless of size, or production method, or retail experience, providers either know about microbial food safety risks and take serious steps to control those risks – or they don’t.
In the 1990s as outbreaks were increasingly associated with unpasteurized apple cider, I would ask my cider provider at the Guelph local market (that’s in Canada) what he was doing to ensure the microbiological safety of his product. He could recite a variety of measures taken on the farm, and even set up a modest micro lab on the farm for testing. I bought his cider.
The folks that run Canada’s largest grocery store chain – Loblaw Companies –are apparently just learning about pest control. They are also learning that consumers can take pictures with their cell phones and can actually use those phones to call local health types.
The Calgary Herald reports that public complaints prompted health inspectors to visit the Westwinds location of the Real Canadian Superstore 17 times in just over a year before it was ordered closed Tuesday after the discovery of live mice, rodent feces and gnawed packaging.
Rick Holley, a microbiology professor in the University of Manitoba’s department of food science, believes shoppers have every reason to be squeamish at the thought of mice scampering over produce or gnawing on potato chip bags.
"Mice are vectors for salmonella. They carry it and shed it not unlike chicken, cattle or hogs.”
Doug Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University, said, "People might think, ‘What’s the big deal about a little mouse poop?’ But it’s an indicator there could be a whole lot else going on.”
The incident comes weeks after a Loblaws store in Toronto — part of the same company as the Superstore chain — was shut down after a "heavy infestation"of mice and rats, including droppings on sandwich counters, was found.
Company spokeswoman Inge van den Berg said the two occurrences have prompted the store to revamp its pest control procedures.
Toronto Public Health (TPH) officials closed the store last night, and already Dinesafe, a website designed to disclose inspection results for food premises in the Toronto area, has updated its most recent inspection findings to include infractions discovered last night, such as:
• failure to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated; • failure to prevent rodent infestation; and, • failure to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4C (40F).
According to Dinesafe, the Dupont St. Loblaw’s has passed the last ten TPH inspections, dating back to April 2007. But are restaurant inspections a good indicator of the quality of an establishment? Or simply a brief snapshot of a food premise at one point in time? And are web-based disclosure systems like Dinesafe the most effective way to communicate inspection results to consumers?
News reports like the ones in the Toronto Sun or Globe and Mail, websites like Dinesafe, and blogs like this or blogTO, get the information out there to consumers. What I am interested in is which of these methods is the most effective.
I could relate.
In a statement, Loblaws public relations director Karen Gumbs apologized to customers — but also assured them the city’s public health department checked out the No Frills location and has “no concerns.”
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consumers know who they’re buying from..jpg)
Summit yesterday, "Farmers’ markets are great … One day they’re going to kill some people, though. I’m just saying that to be dramatic, though.”.jpg)
verification that the farmer, whether she bought it from the Food Terminal or grew it herself, has a clue about dangerous microorganisms. Most answer with variations of, trust me..jpeg)
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The Calgary Herald reports
Toronto Public Health (TPH) officials closed the store last night, and already 