MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Listerosis scare in Canada and class action lawsuit

Canadian Maple Leaf Foods faces millions of dollars in demands from a class action lawsuit following an outbreak of listerosis (meat poisoning) linked to the company's Toronto meat plant and which allegedly is responsible for the death of at least 15 people.

"There are now 29 cases of listeriosis, including 15 deaths, linked to tainted meat from a Maple Leaf Foods meat-packing plant in Toronto" reported Canada's Public Health Agency. The firm's lawyer admitted that more than a 1.100 people have contacted the Merchant Law Group that launched the class action against Maple Leaf Foods on Monday in Ottawa. "I'm not just very confident. I'm all but positive that we will obtain appropriate compensation for people" Tony Merchant said Tuesday. The lawsuit involves people who have suffered illness, death, mental distress or financial losses as a result of the tainted meat and recall. The allegations have not been proven in court. If the lawsuit is successful, the compensation could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Merchant predicted. He said he anticipated many more people will join in the class action. "I would never have guessed that we'd have 1,100 people contact us, and I think they'll find that there are bigger problems here than they'd expected," he said. Merchant's firm has a track record with large class action lawsuits. The firm made an estimated 40 million Canadian dollars by representing about 10,000 former students of aboriginal residential schools in a class action lawsuit worth billions of dollars. Maple Leaf Foods has been involved in a sweeping recall of products that came from the company's Toronto plant, which is expected to cost Maple Leaf Foods more than 20 million dollars. Meanwhile, Maple Leaf shares have lost a quarter of their value since the recall was announced last week. Over the weekend, it was confirmed that meat tainted with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes processed at the company's Bartor Road plant in Toronto was the source of the outbreak of the food-borne illness. On Monday, Maple Leaf upgraded a precautionary recall of 23 of its products issued last week to all 220 kinds of packaged meats from the plant. Of the 15 deaths linked to listeriosis, most are in Ontario, but British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec have also had one death each, said the Canadian Public Health agency. The listeria strain was the underlying or contributing factor in six of the 15 fatalities while the deaths of the other nine patients, who had the bacterium in their system, are still under investigation to determine the exact cause. Anther 30 medical cases, in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, are being examined for possible ties to the outbreak. Meantime Michael McCain chief executive officer from Maple Leaf Foods said that the plant at the centre of a listeria outbreak linked to six deaths is closed until further notice, although it is "unlikely" to determine the root cause of the outbreak. "We will not restart the plant until this investigation is complete, and I've signed off on it personally" said McCain at a news conference. He said the company may be able to "narrow the scope into a range of possibilities" of how the outbreak occurred, but added that it's unlikely the company will pinpoint one root cause. The effort is akin to "finding a needle in a haystack," he said. (*) According to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Listeriosis is a serious infection caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes and has been recognized as an important public health problem in the United States and Canada. The disease affects primarily persons of advanced age, pregnant women, newborns, and adults with weakened immune systems. However, persons without these risk factors can also rarely be affected. The risk may be reduced by following a few simple recommendations. Listeria monocytogenes is found in soil and water. Vegetables can become contaminated from the soil or from manure used as fertilizer. Animals can carry the bacterium without appearing ill and can contaminate foods of animal origin such as meats and dairy products. The bacterium has been found in a variety of raw foods, such as uncooked meats and vegetables, as well as in processed foods that become contaminated after processing, such as soft cheeses and cold cuts at the deli counter. Un-pasteurized (raw) milk or foods made from un-pasteurized milk may contain the bacterium. Listeria is killed by pasteurization and cooking; however, in certain ready-to-eat foods such as hot dogs and deli meats, contamination may occur after cooking but before packaging.