The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has advised all federally registered meat processors to disassemble and clean their meat slicers.

In an advisory notice dated Sept. 5 obtained by Meatingplace.com, CFIA said the requested actions are a direct result of investigations at Maple Leaf Foods that concluded the likely source of the deadly listeriosis outbreak that launched a massive deli meat recall and has killed 14 people was bacterial build-up deep inside the mechanical components of two of its slicers.

"The investigation has highlighted that organic material may become retained within the inner workings of slicing equipment even after routine sanitation has been performed and cleaning conducted in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications," CFIA said.

As a result, the agency is advising operators to immediately do the following:

• At the next scheduled line sanitation, disassemble and perform a systematic, thorough and aggressive cleaning and sanitation procedure on meat slicing equipment, including all internal non-electronic parts and inform the CFIA inspector of all details of this exercise
• Perform listeria environmental sampling of contact surfaces; re-sanitize the equipment prior to reuse; and inform the CFIA inspector of the results of this exercise
• If warranted, and in consultation with the CFIA inspector, review the standard cleaning and sanitation procedures for such equipment to ensure that internal working parts are being suitably cleaned and disinfected on an ongoing basis; This includes introducing routine listeria environmental sampling on contact surfaces of the equipment if such testing is not already being done

A quality assurance manager at one Canadian processor expressed concerns that disassembly beyond manufacturer-specified cleaning protocols could cause its own set of problems.

Such disassembly could involve breaking original manufacturer seals, which might not ever seal as well again, he told Meatingplace.com. For some machines the exercise could also mean invading operating systems at the top of the slicer in order to access those internal non-electronic parts CFIA is asking processors to clean, he noted.

By Janie Gabbett on 9/11/2008 for Meatingplace.com