Have a safe lunch

One thing for sure: there's not going to be a safer food in this country than cold cuts and prepared meats -- particularly those Maple Leaf brands.

The current listeriosis outbreak can be an example of how such incidents should be handled: by companies, government officials and consumers.

Company CEO Michael McCain has taken the highroad, accepting full responsibility for the outbreak and answering those questions he can.

Meanwhile, the company has taken every precaution to clean up the apparently offending processing plant in order to get it operational again.

Hopefully, there is not a swarm of lawyers lighting on the company with frivolous and flimsy legal actions. This sort of behaviour would be unhelpful, and would make other companies shy away from taking the Maple Leaf example in the future.

I understand there are a number of factors in all of this, including pre-existing conditions, age, pregnancy and immune issues. We're still talking about relatively low numbers of fatalities, each with one or more of those other contributing factors.

As well, by this stage, hysteria could well add to mix. In fact, there are reports of the “worried well” besieging emergency rooms.

The truth is, most people eating even listeriosis-contaminated meats - from whatever source - will suffer no noticeable symptoms. Even those who do suffer such symptoms can't be sure which food was responsible for them. Listeriosis comes from a number of sources, not just Maple Leaf's Toronto plant and prepared meats.

Could the government have acted, even before this outbreak?

There has to be caution. If officials go nuts and respond to everything that initially smacks of poisoning or contamination, first, the right source has to be identified. Otherwise, the effort would be counter-productive, leaving the true source uncovered in a case of a mistaken identity. The great, international, contaminated tomato fear of this past summer is a glaring example.

There is an economic cost and a concern people will tire of hearing about such things if too many false alarms are sounded.

As for the current case, this sort of thing happens. The system worked, slower than some would like, but in a way that has heightened awareness by processors and consumers.

Though I'm not a prime example of health and hardiness, I'll be eating Maple Leaf prepared meat products - especially if they are on sale. I love the stuff.

In the end, if you're unsure, cook the product. The new donair regulations in this province are a good example of this simple - and potentially more tasty - precaution.

In the end, the producer, processor and shopper all have roles and responsibilities.

This is the time for processors, government, consumers and victims to work together to find out what happened - and ensure it doesn't again. It's not a time to take cheap shots in the hope of big pay-offs.

There is another twist to all of this. The current “buy local” feeling spreading across the country as a means to cut transportation costs and dependency on others for our food can only benefit from this incident. Not saying something like this can't happen here, or anywhere else, local consumers can often see local producers’ and processors’ accountability.

In all of this, farm food safety and food processing - meat and other sectors - need the cooperation of government, producers and shoppers.