A Joriki Beverages Inc. production facility in Pickering, Ont. Last year’s deadly listeria outbreak in plant-based milks killed three people and sickened dozens more.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is embarking on a mass campaign of inspections after last year’s deadly listeria outbreak in plant-based milks, and will examine more than 2,400 food-production facilities that are licensed to operate but have not yet been inspected.
The blitz, which the CFIA is calling the largest co-ordinated inspection effort ever undertaken in the manufactured-food sector, comes after an outbreak at a facility in Pickering, Ont., that killed three people in the summer of 2024, and sickened dozens more. The factory was never scrutinized for listeria protocols because it had been deemed low risk by the regulator.
A Globe and Mail investigation last year found that an algorithm-based system used by the CFIA to prioritize inspections contained significant flaws, including inaccurate data inputs, and left large numbers of sites without proper scrutiny, including the factory at the centre of the outbreak.
In August, a review by CFIA Inspector-General Scott Rattray concluded that the algorithm-based system needed an overhaul and that the CFIA had failed to meet its annual inspection targets, with many facilities going unscrutinized.
A CFIA action plan in response to the Inspector-General’s report states that, in addition to the blitz, the agency will bolster licensing requirements for food manufacturers, placing more onus on companies to demonstrate that their sites are safe.
It will also seek to deploy stronger enforcement measures more often, including financial penalties and revoking of licences for companies found breaking the rules.
There are more than 8,000 federally licensed food-production facilities in Canada. The inspection blitz, targeting more than 2,400 sites, is to be completed by the fall of 2026 and will determine which need to be prioritized for inspections more often.
“Results from this work will enable the CFIA to determine future inspection frequencies for the manufactured-food sector,” the plan documents say.
“These measures will enable the CFIA to improve risk-management decisions, prevent unsafe foods from reaching the marketplace, and ensure that businesses are held accountable for meeting their responsibilities,” CFIA president Paul MacKinnon said in a statement.
“The 2024 listeria outbreak underscored the importance of strong oversight in emerging product categories such as plant-based beverages, and the CFIA is taking decisive steps to modernize and strengthen its systems.”
Plant-based milks facility did not follow listeria prevention protocol, CFIA says
Mr. MacKinnon said the CFIA will conduct closer scrutiny of plant-based beverages, including targeted testing for listeria, as well as “advancing faster and more accurate methods to detect harmful microbes.”
The outbreak was linked to almond, soy, cashew and other plant-based milks sold under the Silk brand. Such alternative milks have gained prominence in the market over the past decade, but The Globe’s investigation found that the CFIA deemed plant-based milks to be low risk for pathogens.
Under the action plan, the CFIA will no longer grant licences for establishments believed to be lower risk without first verifying that they have provided all information necessary to conduct a proper risk assessment.
The Globe’s investigation found that most of the information – 12 of 16 data points – fed into the CFIA’s algorithm to determine inspection urgency was supplied by companies on a voluntary basis and not verified by inspectors.
At the plant in Pickering, the Inspector-General found that the company hadn’t fully disclosed details of the products it was producing and the risk assessment was inaccurate, meaning the facility was never flagged for scrutiny.
Cale Sampson, whose 76-year-old mother died of listeriosis after consuming the contaminated products, said he hopes the CFIA follows through on the intended plan.
“It’s very encouraging to see that these changes have now been made on paper,” Mr. Sampson said. “I really do hope that this action plan is actually followed in order to truly reduce risk.”
“As tragic as her death was, if it can ultimately help to create real and lasting change with food safety in Canada, then my family and I will feel a greater sense of peace with what has occurred,” Mr. Sampson said.
Natalie Grant, who feared for the life of her young daughter, Harper, in the summer of 2024 after the girl was diagnosed with listeriosis and ended up in hospital for nearly two weeks, said she was encouraged by the heightened inspections, but is incredulous that such a gap existed.
“It’s the start of change,” she said in an interview Tuesday. However, “if there are 2,400 plants they haven’t been to, that’s insane,” Ms. Grant said.
The CFIA said it has allocated dedicated resources to the inspection campaign, at a time when it has been asked to reduce its operating expenditures by up to 15 per cent by 2028, amid federal government cutbacks.
Milton Dyck, national president of the Agriculture Union, which represents CFIA inspectors, said the agency has struggled for years to meet its inspection demands because of staffing levels and resources.
That is partly why the government introduced the algorithm-based system to triage facilities based on risk level, something the inspectors were against, he said.
Mr. Dyck said he wonders how realistic the inspection blitz is. “It all looks good if they can have the resources,” Mr. Dyck said. “But the whole issue is the resources.”
Under the action plan, the CFIA is seeking to improve its modelling by making it possible for consumer complaints to be processed as part of the risk calculation, which is something the Inspector-General called for in his review.
The Inspector-General found that consumer complaints weren’t being fed properly into the algorithm because of formatting problems with government databases. That meant signals about potential problems, such as illnesses or reports of mould, weren’t being tracked properly, leading to inaccurate risk ratings.
Even if they are unverified, such signals “serve as valuable intelligence that may indicate an underlying manufacturing problem or broader systemic risk,” the Inspector-General wrote in August.
The action plan says the CFIA will also seek to take more definitive enforcement steps with companies, including “stronger enforcement action,” and “administrative monetary penalties, if they are found to violate the rules.”