Listeria monocytogenes - are we failing to learn lessons?

I just looked it up.

It's 17 years since the Maple Leaf deaths.

17 years.

And yet we're still reading the same things.

Poor fabrication.

Cleaning not quite what it should be.

Poor hygienic design.

I was in a factory recently and I pointed out an area of fabrication damage.  "Oh we've not prioritised fixing there because we've not had any swabs fail in that area."

I can't go into detail here but there was a reason I could detect why swabs might not be effective in picking up Listeria in that area.

I'm still seeing factories that wait for a swab failure to correct the things they know are wrong.  They're waiting to sort out fabrication, cleaning, condensation etc.  They are waiting till they actually have Listeria in their facility.  Let that sink in.  They're not acting until they have something which will probably become a resident strain.

Boars Head, pasta recalls and more.  And deaths of people who didn't need to die.

More are happening and with whole genome sequencing, even if they've not been linked yet, they might be in the future (even historical cases).

But when are we going to start with accountability on freely available information that "if you don't do this, you WILL have a problem?"  It feels like (in the UK at least) the only people who ever get imprisoned are the little guys, the takeaway owners etc.  In the US you have to be wilfully dishonest to be put in prison.  When will food safety get the same penalties as people safety?  Because it is people safety, the people are just not in front of you when they die.

Profit before people. Full stop

Our jobs are considered "unimportant" in most places, we're here because of a requirement...........I firmly believe, that there wouldn't be anyone doing our work without the requirements

I worked for ML at that time (in a different capacity) we all felt it, deep. When i walked into the office the Monday morning, to an office with 500 people, you could hear a pin drop.  I had not heard the news over the weekend.

My next job was in food safety, I take my work very seriously.   You must have nerves of steel and be able to quote chapter and verse to upper management in this field, but far too often, the people hired are too young, too weak and too "gung ho" to have what it takes to push back.  I'm not afraid to push OR walk away.  And if I walk, I will blow many whistles on my way out the door 

We kind of do the same thing here stateside for people safety. If EU has very harsh penalties for that, you've already got a leg up on us.