EON

Outbreak Makes All Food Leaving Canada Suspect

Toronto- There are a lot of food types that Canada exports every day, and they are being looked at askance by many since the beginning of the Toronto Listeria outbreak.

Normally food from Canada is known to be of the highest quality, and the reputation for Canadian foods has year after year enjoyed a high reputation.

The list of foods that Canadians and others are being warned about grew longer yesterday after the Canadian Food Authorities announced that fresh cut mushrooms were added to the list of foods that potentially contain Listeria, and that they are being recalled.

The attention that is being paid to food borne safety issues is a good thing in that it led to the uncovering of these mushrooms and their recall.

But food shippers and producers in Canada are wincing at the increased scrutiny, and attention, and they will be glad when things return to normal.

“Listeria is a bacteria that if you look for it on surfaces, you will find it,” said David Walter-Toews.

Dr. Walter-Toews is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Guelph.

There a foods in the food chain that commonly have the bacteria, but normally it is at low levels and the bacteria remains fairly harmless to humans.

Normally such foods can be safely used, but when listeria is found in other foods, the search for listeria bacteria can backfire, and it can literally be found almost everywhere you look.