Listeria outbreak victims call for reform after algorithm failed to flag ...

Cale Sampson pets the family cat Romey on the table where a small memorial is laid for Cale's late mother Muriel, at the Sampson's home in Toronto, on Nov. 3.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail

Victims of a deadly listeria outbreak this summer say they are angry and shocked by revelations that a federal system for determining risks at food manufacturers – which involved an algorithm for assigning inspectors – resulted in the facility in question not being inspected.

A Globe and Mail investigation found that the system introduced five years ago by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) sought to prioritize production plants for inspections. But while the algorithm placed more focus on certain operations, it didn’t flag others, resulting in potentially risky sites receiving no scrutiny at all.

A listeria outbreak in types of plant-based alternative milks, sold under the Silk and Great Value brands, resulted in millions of products being recalled on July 8. The Public Health Agency of Canada says 20 people were taken to hospital or sickened, including three who died.

The agency linked the outbreak to a facility in Pickering Ont., and determined through genome sequencing that the strain of bacteria involved was also connected to illnesses as far back as August, 2023. The outbreak is now one of the most serious and prolonged on record involving Canadian products.

The Globe investigation found that the Pickering plant had not been inspected for listeria during that time. Responding to questions about the algorithm-based system, the CFIA acknowledged that, prior to the emergency, no inspector had gone to the production facility since 2019, but that particular visit did not include inspecting for listeria.

The CFIA could not give a date for the last time the site was formally inspected for listeria.

“This system has failed my family, it failed my mom – by causing her death – and unless this system is changed, it will continue to fail Canadians,” said Cale Sampson, whose 76-year-old mother, Muriel, died of listeriosis in June after consuming tainted coconut milk.

“The findings from this investigation should be a major wake-up call for our entire country.”

Several people affected by the outbreak said they were disturbed to learn that most of the data points used in the risk calculations done by the algorithm are supplied by companies themselves. This information is often not verified by the CFIA, two current inspectors told The Globe, which isn’t naming them because they fear reprisals for speaking publicly.

“My head is spinning,” said Sanniah Jabeen, a 32-year-old woman who connects her second-trimester miscarriage late last year to Silk oat milk, which she consumed during the pregnancy, believing it was safe.

“You’re trusting corporations to do the checks themselves?” said Ms. Jabeen, who tested positive for listeriosis. The autopsy revealed listeria was also present in the placenta, the amniotic fluid and the fetus itself. Ms. Jabeen was contacted by public-health officials at the time of her miscarriage, in December, 2023, but doesn’t know if she is included in the official case count.

“Food safety is as important as air or water,” she said. “With something like listeria, there’s no bad smell. There’s no indicator that the food or drink is contaminated.”

Natalie Grant, who feared for the life of her seven-year-old daughter this summer after she was diagnosed with listeriosis and ended up in hospital for nearly two weeks, called on the government to change the system, specifically addressing what she described as weaknesses in the algorithm.

“Not only do we rely on this algorithm, but we’re relying on companies to self-regulate and be transparent,” she said. “That’s a problem. They need to be more accountable. Who’s policing them? The government is saying, ‘Follow the guidelines,’ and then not checking on them for several years.”

The Globe investigation found that the CFIA knew of multiple complaints about the company, Joriki Inc., and its Pickering facility in the past, including a lawsuit alleging mould in iced tea produced at a different Joriki factory in Toronto, and complaints of mould at the Pickering site.

“Complaints are being made, and it’s not being deemed a high enough priority for someone to go in there?” Ms. Grant said. “Why is your algorithm not picking that up?”

“We need to do better,” she said.

A spokesperson for Minister of Health Mark Holland, whose office oversees the CFIA, sent comments Saturday reiterating a previous statement from October that the ministry is examining the outbreak. Spokesperson Alexandra Maheux said the minister’s office would need more time to respond to detailed questions posed by The Globe about the problems surrounding the algorithm and what needs to be done.

Joriki Inc., a privately owned company, was contracted by Danone Canada, a subsidiary of French dairy giant Danone SA, to make the plant-based milk products.

The CFIA told The Globe in statement that Joriki did not follow federal policy for swabbing the facility for listeria before the outbreak, and had not been conducting any testing for the bacteria in finished products or on any food contact surfaces.

Joriki denied those allegations, saying in a statement to The Globe that it had a monitoring program for listeria in place, which included swabbing the production line and conducting finished-product testing, and that its program “exceeds CFIA requirements.” The company did not share what those tests found.

Joriki said the CFIA never raised any concerns about its program prior to the outbreak, adding that it has only seen government data on one of the cases.

The Globe investigation found that the algorithm used by the CFIA has several weaknesses. In particular, 12 of 16 data points used as inputs to the risk calculation that dictates how often a site gets inspected are provided by industry and not always verified.

As a result, the algorithm can misjudge the real risk associated with a plant, deeming the facility a low priority, which means it may be inspected less, or not at all. In the case of the Pickering site, the job of inspecting the facility was never assigned to a CFIA inspector under this system, The Globe found.

The CFIA does not meet its own targets for inspecting certain facilities, which – in the case of the Pickering facility – should have been at least once a year, the agency said in response to The Globe’s questions.

The federal policy on listeria states: “It is the role of the CFIA to verify compliance with federal food legislation.” However, current inspectors told the Globe that isn’t the case.

Mr. Sampson said he was alarmed to find out how the algorithm-based system worked.

“It is clear that we need to have an immediate reform in the food-inspection protocols nationally, so that companies are not self-policing,” he said.

“The CFIA needs to realize that it is not okay to go for years without an inspection and that it is completely unacceptable for the information, which is being submitted by these companies, to not be audited.”