On top of the measures will be the hiring of additional full-time meat inspectors and permission to irradiate meat to cut bacteria that cause food-borne ailments.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said at a press conference on Wednesday 58 more food inspectors will be taken in this year, who will add to the 200 newly-hired inspectors the past 24 months.
On the same day, Dr. Jeff Farber, director of Health Canada's Bureau of Microbial Hazards, said the federal government is considering allowing meat irradiation by early 2009. The technique, which involves blasting food with radiation to kill harmful bacteria, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000, but the practice has not been accepted widely by consumers.
Meanwhile, keith Warriner, a professor of food microbiology at the University of Gulph, said Canada's system of detecting listeria in food processing facilities is more efficient and effective than the zero-tolerance method used in the U.S.
Warriner explained that because food production facilities are conducive to listeria growth, a positive test for listeria on contact surfaces of food plants will not lead to an outright recall. Instead higher sanitation practices are pushed.
In contrast, because of the zero-tolerance policy in the U.S. which will result to product recall even if only one listeria was discovered, food firms are testing their facilities less often to have the least chance of a mandated food recall.
Also on Wednesday, Maple Leaf Foods president Michael McCain admitted the cause of the listeria contamination at its Toronto facility may be difficult to identify after a team of experts went over the company's data for three days and could not yet pinpoint the root cause.
Listeria cases traced to tainted Maple Leaf Foods meat products has risen to 29 on Wednesday, including 15 deaths. Twelve of the fatalities came from Ontario, while British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec had one each.
