Maple Leaf Foods
Encyclopedia
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a major Canadian food processing
company, founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers
.
. It was founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers, most prominently William Davies Company and was immediately Canada's largest food processor, a title it would hold for the next sixty years. Its main business was pork, and its massive operations processing hogs for export to the United Kingdom
helped Toronto earn its nickname "Hogtown." Moving into western Canada it became Canada's largest beef slaughterer. It also moved into other markets producing well known brands such as Squirrel peanut butter and Black Diamond cheese. The company also developed a large bread division, best known for the Dempster's brand, which is Canada's best selling brand of bread, and includes San Francisco-area Grace Baking products.
During the 1980s, the company began to suffer. It was purchased by the British Hillsdown Holdings who sold or closed most of its slaughterhouses and merged the firm with Maple Leaf Mills, and renaming it Maple Leaf Foods. These efforts, led by David Newton as CEO and Lewis Rose
as CFO, were successful and the company returned to profitability.
After being successfully revived, the company was purchased by Wallace McCain
, formerly co-CEO of McCain Foods, who had been ousted by his brother and co-owner Harrison McCain
, in 1995 along with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
. In 2003, the company purchased rival Schneider Foods. The company is also one of Canada's largest agribusiness
es, owning poultry and hog farms across the country. The main slaughterhouse is located in Brandon, Manitoba
.
, Saskatchewan
, is the headquarters of Mitchell's Gourmet Foods, formerly known as Intercontinental Packers, which produces the "Olympic Fine Meats" line of products and is one of Canada's largest meat processors, employing more than 1,400 Saskatonians.
Originally established in Saskatoon in 1940 by Fred Mendel as Intercontinental Packers, the business concentrated on canned meat products sold into the US and bacon for Britain during the war years. In 1998, the family run business changed its name to Mitchell's Gourmet Foods.
In 1999, an alliance was formed with Schneider Corporation, and eventually the business was sold to Schneider on November 12, 2002. On September 25, 2003, Schneider was acquired by Maple Leaf Foods. Mitchell continues as an independent operating company of Schneider Foods. However, on October 12, 2006, Maple Leaf Foods, owners of Mitchell's, announced it would be closing down its major plant in Saskatoon over the next three years.
On March 1, 2007, Maple Leaf Foods announced that it would cease operations of the cut/kill departments at their Saskatoon slaughter house. The last day of operation was June 1, 2007.
, and other products. According to the National Post, the recall took place on 24 August 2008 and included all cured meats manufactured from a contaminated Toronto plant. By August 25, the outbreak had claimed as many as five lives and sickened dozens. Canadian Food Inspection Agency
issued a public warning not to consume several Maple Leaf products because of the possibility that they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Public Health Agency of Canada
concluded that a strain of Listeria bacteria, one that matched the Listeria strain identified in some Maple Leaf food products, was linked to the illness and death of several consumers. On August 23, company CEO Michael McCain responded to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Public Health Agency of Canada's conclusion and said, "Tragically, our products have been linked to illness and loss of life. To those people who are ill, and to the families who have lost loved ones, I offer my deepest and sincerest sympathies".
That same day, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced that 21 cases of the listeriosis outbreak had been confirmed in four provinces. Three deaths in Ontario
were officially tied to the deadly strain of the food-borne listeria bacterium, and a fourth death on Vancouver Island
was also attributed to the strain. The public health agency also said a further 30 suspected cases remain under investigation.
On August 27, 2008, The Globe and Mail
reported a leaked Conservative cabinet document which outlined plans for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to give the food industry a greater role in the inspection process. However, some of the plans have been in place since March 31, 2008 according to a CFIA manager and an official from the union that represents the federal inspectors.
At the Maple Leaf plant behind the Listeria outbreak, a single federal inspector was relegated to auditing company paperwork and had to deal with several other plants, the manager and the union official said, contradicting the impression that officials had left last week that full-time watchdogs were on-site. Under the new system, federal inspectors do random product tests only three or four times a year at any given plant, and meat packers are required to test each type of product only once a month. Under the old system, inspectors had a more hands-on role on the plant floor, did more of the tests themselves and had more freedom to investigate, said former CFIA inspector.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
rejected any suggestions that the federal government is not doing enough. The Conservative government's changes are the subject of heated controversy as academics and the opposition express concerns over the few details that have emerged so far. The 2008 budget indicated the CFIA was asked to find savings to pay for new programs. The leaked document indicated savings would be found by transferring some meat-inspection duties to industry.
Since 2008, there have been:
No cases of listeriosis related to this recall were confirmed.
as a speciality bakery subsidiary of Canada Bread which in turn is 89.8% owned by Maple Leaf Foods. It operates from a total of six sites in the UK and employs around 1,200 employees. It owns the New York Bagel brand and presently makes over 90% of the 200 million bagel
s supplied to the UK retail and wholesale market.
In recent years, Maple Leaf has diversified from its traditional bagel market into new areas of speciality bakery business. In 2006, it acquired The French Croissant Company, Avance and the Harvestime Bakery. These three purchases were followed by the purchase of premium breads supplier La Fornaia in August 2007 and, three months later in November, Bernard Matthews bakery in Dunstable
.
The company's key products now include bagels, ciabatta
, croissants, artisan breads, baguettes, soft pretzels, bialys and tear'n'share breads.
In December 2008, after trying to take over North London
based rival The Bagel Group, allegations were made by the owner of The Bagel Group via the tabloid Sunday Mirror
newspaper to the Office of Fair Trading
of price fixing, after Managing Director Peter Maycock was filmed in a Chinese restaurant.
Food processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...
company, founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers
Meat packing industry
The meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock...
.
History
The company was originally known as Canada PackersCanada Packers
Canada Packers was the largest meat packing and meat processing company in Canada, located in Ontario. It is now part of Maple Leaf Foods through a merger with Maple Leaf Mills....
. It was founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers, most prominently William Davies Company and was immediately Canada's largest food processor, a title it would hold for the next sixty years. Its main business was pork, and its massive operations processing hogs for export to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
helped Toronto earn its nickname "Hogtown." Moving into western Canada it became Canada's largest beef slaughterer. It also moved into other markets producing well known brands such as Squirrel peanut butter and Black Diamond cheese. The company also developed a large bread division, best known for the Dempster's brand, which is Canada's best selling brand of bread, and includes San Francisco-area Grace Baking products.
During the 1980s, the company began to suffer. It was purchased by the British Hillsdown Holdings who sold or closed most of its slaughterhouses and merged the firm with Maple Leaf Mills, and renaming it Maple Leaf Foods. These efforts, led by David Newton as CEO and Lewis Rose
Lewis Rose
Lewis Rose is a Canadian businessman born in South Africa. He is the Partner at Farber Financial Group, responsible for the Turnaround and Crisis Management Practice...
as CFO, were successful and the company returned to profitability.
After being successfully revived, the company was purchased by Wallace McCain
Wallace McCain
G. Wallace F. McCain, was a Canadian businessman, co-founder of McCain Foods Limited. With an estimated net worth of $US 2.3 billion , McCain was ranked by Forbes as the 13th wealthiest Canadian and 512th in the world.- Background :Born in Florenceville, New Brunswick, he received a Bachelor of...
, formerly co-CEO of McCain Foods, who had been ousted by his brother and co-owner Harrison McCain
Harrison McCain
Harrison McCain, CC, ONB was a Canadian businessman, co-founder of McCain Foods Limited.Born in Florenceville, New Brunswick, he was the co-founder, along with his brothers Andrew, Robert and Wallace, of McCain Foods. Harrison was the 4th son and Wallace the 5th son of the family. Their father was...
, in 1995 along with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan , commonly referred to as Teachers, is the organization responsible for administering pensions for public school teachers of the Canadian province of Ontario. The OTPP also invests the plan's pension fund, making it one of the largest and most powerful investment...
. In 2003, the company purchased rival Schneider Foods. The company is also one of Canada's largest agribusiness
Agribusiness
In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term for the various businesses involved in food production, including farming and contract farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesale and distribution, processing, marketing, and retail sales....
es, owning poultry and hog farms across the country. The main slaughterhouse is located in Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, Canada, and is located in the southwestern area of the province. Brandon is the largest city in the Westman region of Manitoba. The city is located along the Assiniboine River. Spruce Woods Provincial Park and CFB Shilo are a relatively short distance...
.
Mitchell's Gourmet Foods
SaskatoonSaskatoon
Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, is the headquarters of Mitchell's Gourmet Foods, formerly known as Intercontinental Packers, which produces the "Olympic Fine Meats" line of products and is one of Canada's largest meat processors, employing more than 1,400 Saskatonians.
Originally established in Saskatoon in 1940 by Fred Mendel as Intercontinental Packers, the business concentrated on canned meat products sold into the US and bacon for Britain during the war years. In 1998, the family run business changed its name to Mitchell's Gourmet Foods.
In 1999, an alliance was formed with Schneider Corporation, and eventually the business was sold to Schneider on November 12, 2002. On September 25, 2003, Schneider was acquired by Maple Leaf Foods. Mitchell continues as an independent operating company of Schneider Foods. However, on October 12, 2006, Maple Leaf Foods, owners of Mitchell's, announced it would be closing down its major plant in Saskatoon over the next three years.
On March 1, 2007, Maple Leaf Foods announced that it would cease operations of the cut/kill departments at their Saskatoon slaughter house. The last day of operation was June 1, 2007.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency recall
In August 2008, shortly after a plant closure, Maple Leaf Foods announced a recall for several products which was later broadened to cover products from Maple Leaf, Schneiders, McDonald'sMcDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
, and other products. According to the National Post, the recall took place on 24 August 2008 and included all cured meats manufactured from a contaminated Toronto plant. By August 25, the outbreak had claimed as many as five lives and sickened dozens. Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a science based regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, animals, and plants, which enhance the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy...
issued a public warning not to consume several Maple Leaf products because of the possibility that they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Public Health Agency of Canada
Public Health Agency of Canada
The Public Health Agency of Canada is an agency of the Government of Canada that is responsible for public health, emergency preparedness, and response and infectious and chronic disease control and prevention...
concluded that a strain of Listeria bacteria, one that matched the Listeria strain identified in some Maple Leaf food products, was linked to the illness and death of several consumers. On August 23, company CEO Michael McCain responded to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Public Health Agency of Canada's conclusion and said, "Tragically, our products have been linked to illness and loss of life. To those people who are ill, and to the families who have lost loved ones, I offer my deepest and sincerest sympathies".
That same day, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced that 21 cases of the listeriosis outbreak had been confirmed in four provinces. Three deaths in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
were officially tied to the deadly strain of the food-borne listeria bacterium, and a fourth death on Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
was also attributed to the strain. The public health agency also said a further 30 suspected cases remain under investigation.
On August 27, 2008, The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
reported a leaked Conservative cabinet document which outlined plans for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to give the food industry a greater role in the inspection process. However, some of the plans have been in place since March 31, 2008 according to a CFIA manager and an official from the union that represents the federal inspectors.
At the Maple Leaf plant behind the Listeria outbreak, a single federal inspector was relegated to auditing company paperwork and had to deal with several other plants, the manager and the union official said, contradicting the impression that officials had left last week that full-time watchdogs were on-site. Under the new system, federal inspectors do random product tests only three or four times a year at any given plant, and meat packers are required to test each type of product only once a month. Under the old system, inspectors had a more hands-on role on the plant floor, did more of the tests themselves and had more freedom to investigate, said former CFIA inspector.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
rejected any suggestions that the federal government is not doing enough. The Conservative government's changes are the subject of heated controversy as academics and the opposition express concerns over the few details that have emerged so far. The 2008 budget indicated the CFIA was asked to find savings to pay for new programs. The leaked document indicated savings would be found by transferring some meat-inspection duties to industry.
Since 2008, there have been:
- 38 confirmed cases of listeriosis across Canada (22 in Ontario, 4 in B.C., 2 in Quebec and 1 in Saskatchewan).
- 30 suspected cases (16 in Ontario, 10 in Quebec and 4 in Alberta)
- 9 confirmed deaths caused by the outbreak (all in Ontario)
- 11 suspected deaths (6 in Ontario, 2 in Alberta, 1 in B.C., 1 in Saskatchewan and 1 in Quebec)
2009 precautionary recall
On August 4, 2009, roughly one year after the 2008 recall of Maple Leaf Foods products due to listeriosis contamination, another recall was ordered on 9 wiener products. Brands affected were Hygrade, Shopsy's and Maple Leaf at its plant in Hamilton, Ontario, due to the possibility that they may have contained traces of Listeria monocytogenes.No cases of listeriosis related to this recall were confirmed.
United Kingdom
In 1996, Maple Leaf Bakery UK was established in RotherhamRotherham
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
as a speciality bakery subsidiary of Canada Bread which in turn is 89.8% owned by Maple Leaf Foods. It operates from a total of six sites in the UK and employs around 1,200 employees. It owns the New York Bagel brand and presently makes over 90% of the 200 million bagel
Bagel
A bagel is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior...
s supplied to the UK retail and wholesale market.
In recent years, Maple Leaf has diversified from its traditional bagel market into new areas of speciality bakery business. In 2006, it acquired The French Croissant Company, Avance and the Harvestime Bakery. These three purchases were followed by the purchase of premium breads supplier La Fornaia in August 2007 and, three months later in November, Bernard Matthews bakery in Dunstable
Dunstable
Dunstable is a market town and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.-Etymology:In...
.
The company's key products now include bagels, ciabatta
Ciabatta
Ciabatta is an Italian white bread made with wheat flour and yeast. The loaf is somewhat elongated, broad and flattish. There are many variations of ciabatta.Ciabatta in its modern form was developed in 1982...
, croissants, artisan breads, baguettes, soft pretzels, bialys and tear'n'share breads.
In December 2008, after trying to take over North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
based rival The Bagel Group, allegations were made by the owner of The Bagel Group via the tabloid Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
newspaper to the Office of Fair Trading
Office of Fair Trading
The Office of Fair Trading is a not-for-profit and non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforces both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the UK's economic regulator...
of price fixing, after Managing Director Peter Maycock was filmed in a Chinese restaurant.
See also
- TREMERE: Arnold TremereArnold TremereArnold Tremere, Ph.D. was appointed as the Canadian International Grains Institute first director of Feed and Technology from May 1982 to October 1989, and subsequently was promoted to the position of Executive Director, the highest non-partisan position within the field of Agriculture in the...
, M.Sc.Master of ScienceA Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
, Ph.D., Nutritionist and Director of Nutrition and Research Maple Leaf Mills Agriculture division, Toronto; General Manager of Maple Leaf Mills, Western Region, Calgary.