Maple Leaf Foods is recalling nine wiener products produced under the Hygrade, Shopsy’s and Maple Leaf brands at its plant in Hamilton, Ontario, due to the possibility that they may contain traces of listeria monocytogenes.
“This is a precautionary measure only,” the company says in a release. “The company is 100 per cent in compliance with the Government of Canada’s new listeria policy.”
There have been no reported illnesses.
“After last August’s tragedy, Maple Leaf is being ultra-cautious about listeria,” said Randall Huffman, Chief Food Safety Officer for Maple Leaf Foods. “The Hamilton plant has a very strong food safety testing and sanitation program, and the listeria monocytogenes found in random product samples is at very low levels.”
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Huffman noted listeria exists in all food plants and many consumer fridges. It is commonly found in the environment and one in 200 packages of all meat and poultry products in the marketplace will likely contain listeria monocytogenes, even higher in other ready-to-eat foods.
“We take whatever steps we can to be cautious when we know specific lots that may be exposed, as a precautionary step. Listeria can never be eliminated but it can be effectively controlled,” he said.
He said Maple Leaf is doing more aggressive and frequent listeria testing its plants than regulations require, and that means it is finding it more.”
Huffman said although Maple Leaf has built a safety net of hold and test quarantine procedures, the effectiveness of product quarantine depends on rapid testing methods which have not yet been approved by government. “The product in question was produced during a period when test results were not yet available due to the excessively long lead time of currently government approved testing methods,” he said. “We urge the Canadian government to approve commercially proven in-plant rapid testing methods which are now widely in use in the United States and Europe and Maple Leaf will immediately implement this technology at all our prepared meat plants to improve the effectiveness of our quarantine procedures.
Products affected by this recall include:
Product Size UPC BB Dates
————————————————————————-
Hygrade Wieners 450g 58640 00001 09 SE16
————————————————————————-
Shopsy’s Deli Fresh All Beef 675g 63100 14461 09 SE17
Frankfurters
————————————————————————-
Shopsy’s All Beef Wieners 450g 64875 20730 09 SE08 and
09 SE17
————————————————————————-
Shopsy’s Deli Fresh Frankfurters 450g 64875 20745 09 SE08
————————————————————————-
Maple Leaf Original Wieners 450g 63100 22356 09 SE08 and
09 SE17
————————————————————————-
Maple Leaf Top Dogs All Beef 450g 63100 22395 09 SE08 and
Wieners 09 SE15
————————————————————————-
Maple Leaf Top Dogs Original 450g 63100 22410 09 SE09,
Wieners 09 SE10 and
09 SE15
————————————————————————-
Maple Leaf Top Dogs Original 450g 63100 22412 09 SE09
Wieners BBQ Size
————————————————————————-
Maple Leaf Top Dogs 33% Less 450g 63100 82334 09 SE08 and
Fat Wieners 09 SE15
————————————————————————-
The “best before” date, the establishment number for the Hamilton plant “EST. 611” and Line 1 “L1” can be found on the inkjet stamp located on the sealed edge of the packaging and the UPC code is located on the back of the package. Note that products featuring an establishment code other than EST 611 or Line other than L1 are NOT affected by this recall. No other Maple Leaf products are affected by this recall.
