Maple Leaf Foods Launches Food Safety Website

Maple Leaf Foods recently launched a Food Safety Website as a part of its commitment to consumers to share information about the steps it is taking to make its products safe. In addition to a section describing the Maple Leaf Action Plan, the Website, “Food Safety at Home,” addresses precautions consumers should take when preparing, cooking and storing food at home.

The site “is a huge leap forward in reaching consumers,” said CEO Michael McCain in an online blog. “It’s taken us over two years in the making and it’s a great site with neat gadgets like meal planning tools, recipes, cooking and shopping tips, and most importantly food safety insights.”

The Website is a response to the August 2008 Listeria contamination of Maple Leaf deli meats which led to the deaths of 22 people and made many others ill, which the site notes, “was by far the most awful event in the 100-plus year history of the company. In the wake of this tragedy, Maple Leaf Foods made an unwavering commitment to be an industry leader in food safety and to help spread the word to educate consumers, peers and the industry on Listeria and other foodborne illnesses.”

In addition to the site, Maple Leaf continues enhance its food safety program and make changes in its plants to significantly reduce Listeria findings, and to manage it effectively to protect public health, including:

• improved sanitization.
• doubled the amount of environmental testing.
• increased the amount of food testing.
• strengthened our product recall procedures.

View the site at Food Safety at Home.