Do You Have a Crisis Plan ? This Will Kill You
How would you feel if the name of your restaurant, firm or chain was part of a front page story titled: "Have You Eaten Any Of These?"
The sub-headline is: "Check your fridge: More and more of our favorite meat dishes, sandwiches pulled from shelves."
This was the front page of a major Canadian newspaper.
Canada is in the midst of possibly the worst food-borne disaster in its history. One of the best known, almost revered 100-year old meat companies, Maple Leaf, the prime producer of more than 220 different products, has had their major plant in Toronto shut down by government inspectors. The total recall of anything they produce is going to cost them at least $20 million at a minimum.
Worse than any financial costs however, the death toll linked to the spread of deadly listeriosis by way of the allegedly tainted meats and other products, has reached 12. More than 30 are very seriously ill, with others expected. If you want to get a relative size of such a disaster in the U.S.A., multiply all these numbers by a factor of 10.
The front pages of the major dailies are carrying the terrible news. Broadcast media is full of it. The newspaper I mentioned above, the Vancouver Sun, lists hundreds of different products...and the names of at least seven different major food service and restaurant chains...right on the front page.
This food-borne epidemic - and the obvious resultant media frenzy - is shedding a heat lamp of light on both the supermarkets and entire food service industry in this country. The fear is palpable and mounting.
I'm visiting British Columbia today, as I write this. In a restaurant at lunch, I watched people repeatedly avoid anything with sliced meats, meat products in general. They each had one major question of the server: "This doesn't have any Maple Leaf products in it, does it?"
I know, because I was one of them asking that very question. I was sitting at a table reading about this catastrophe; it sure made me sit up and take notice....fast!
I thought of Boston Pizza, Tim Horton's, Mr. Submarine, Shopsys, McDonalds, Pizza Nova, and the many other food service outlets named in the front page article. The listing of the names of the product types, the brand names and those selling them, took up 2/3rds of the entire front page of the largest circulation newspaper in all of western Canada.
The newspapers point out the grim news: those with immune-suppressed systems, small children, pregnant women and the elderly are all at great risk if they come in contact with this bacterium.
For the food service business, here's the most disquieting part: this particular bacterium likes to live in the walk-in cooler. You have to operate your walk-in at less than 4 degrees Celsius to stop its growth. Additionally, it loves both salt and nitrates, which most other bacteria don't. This is why processed cheeses and sliced meats are at greatest risk.
This is not your common, everyday bacterium. The experts are postulating the possibility that this particular one is perhaps able to resist the types of sanitizers and cleaning agents now being used to clean and sanitize food production and food service equipment.
I'll talk more about the need for all food service operators to have what I call a "crisis plan" in part 2 of this article.
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