Maple Leaf Foods recent recall of hot dogs due to fears of listeria, while not good news for the company does stay on their recent brand message and consumers should be pleased. Since a listeriosis outbreak at one of their plants in 2008 Maple Leaf Foods has made food safety a primary focus of their trust re-building efforts. Following the 2008 crisis, Maple Leaf’s CEO Michael McCain apologized to Canadians and vowed Maple Leaf Foods would go above and beyond when it came to protecting the public health. PR experts around the world applauded Maple Leaf’s handling of the situation and McCain was even named CEO of the year by Canadian Press for 2008.

A campaign followed shortly including TV ads with the taglines “Passionate people, passionate about food” that show Maple Leaf microbiologists working with meat at the Toronto plant, and later serving it to their children at home. Visitors to the Maple Leaf Foods website have the option to visit a special Food Safety at Home section which encourages families to take precautions while preparing, cooking, and storing food at home and offers tips and checklists to do so.

And while many want to paint this recent recall as another Maple Leaf failure, it is in fact a good news story that supports their ongoing efforts to be seen as a leader in food service safety.  Given listeria is practically impossible to eliminate; we should be lauding the industry and government for the fact their mandatory testing and reporting requirements are working rather than screaming ‘not again’ when the CFIA is reporting there have not been any reported illnesses with this recall.