No Slime in Your Kitchen
I just finished reading an article from the Canadian Press which was published Sunday. It talks about the sanitary conditions in the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto that was in the news in 2008 due to a listerioisis outbreak that killed twenty-two people. I wrote about this back in September 2008 and feel a need to restate my opinion again.
One month after the Toronto plant was re-opened inspectors found slime, rust, mould, meat parts and other dirt on various bits of equipment. Some of the items were resolved a month later but not all. So now, twelve months later, I can't help but wonder what might be lurking in the corners of the plant, in the knife holders, under the work counters, etc. If public safety was at risk back in 2008 how can it be that it took twelve months for this to be picked up and reported on by the press?
Anyone who cooks and spends time in a kitchen knows that it takes some effort to keep even an apartment kitchen clean. Food scraps end up stuck between the kitchen sink and the counter and fall behind the oven. Those fruit and vegetable drawers in the refrigerator end up looking a little slimy after a few months and need to be rinsed out. Water sits and pools around the taps and, if left for a few days, pink, brown, yellow colours start appearing. This is normal. Food contains bacteria and other organisms and they have the instinct to survive and procreate as much as us humans do - and are better at it than we are. So...you all know that you need to keep the kitchen pretty clean.
Keeping a plant clean must take a tremendous amount of effort. While it is a shame that this particular plant has been in the news twice it is unlikely that there is a food plant in this country that is 100% clean and that would not have any findings after an inspection by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Maple Leaf probably is not any worse than other food processors....and here is my point.
The more processed foods you eat the more you expose yourself to risks. It is hard enough to have a family of four keep a kitchen clean. How about training an employee group of hundreds? Especially people who may not really care about their job and are there simply to make ends meet and draw a salary. Try keeping a fifty square foot area clean and you will realize that keeping an area that is tens of thousands of square feet in size clean must be a challenge. The more steps your food goes through outside of your kitchen the more you expose yourself. The fruit pickers, the meat slaughterers. The transportation and storage along the way to the processing plants. The handlers in between. The equipment, the packaging, the grocer. Your hands and your fridge and finally your kitchen and your mouth.
If you want to reduce your risks eliminate processed foods from your diet. Peel, cut, dice, combine, fry, steam and bake them in your kitchen. Do it yourself. Look at the colour of the fruits, look at the bruises on them. Feel them for ripeness. Don't just open the Del Monte can and eat them and what ever else might be lurking in that nice green can.
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