The outbreak is not yet linked to a contaminated batch of roast and corned beef ordered recalled last week by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). But Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, supplier of Sure Slice brand packaged beef, expanded the recall to include its other ready-to-eat deli meats manufactured since June 2. The meat products were distributed to fast food restaurants, institutions, nursing homes, hospitals and supermarket delis across Canada.
Maple Leaf also temporarily shut down its production plant in Toronto while health authorities inspect food safety procedures at the facility.
The 13 cases of listeriosis were in Ontario. Two people in British Columbia were infected, one in Saskatchewan and another in Quebec. The PHAC suspects that the victims, mostly old people, had eaten contaminated food in nursing homes and hospitals in July.
According to CFIA, food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which is not killed by refrigeration, may not look or smell spoiled, but eating it could cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness, nausea and death.
