Rule Changes Needed After E. Coli Outbreak in Calgary: REPORT

The Provincial Government will follow through on toughening the rules and regulations around food handling after last year's E. coli outbreak in Calgary.

The outbreak was declared by Alberta Health Services last September and lasted just over 50 days. Throughout the outbreak, 448 cases of E. coli were identified at 17 licensed childcare facilities, with 359 of those cases lab-confirmed. Thirty-eight children were hospitalized, along with one adult.

The Alberta Government tasked former Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson to lead a task force in examining the recommendations and bringing them back.

The third-party, provincially mandated Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Review Panel came up with 12 primary recommendations and 27 sub-recommendations to prevent a similar outbreak.

In a press conference on Monday, Hanson said that the system needs updates and reforms, “The report is a series of recommendations that will provide a road map to create a safe and effective food safety system.”

Premier Smith said that the recommendations are a good first step in restoring trust in the system, “Our government intends to act on every recommendation we can to protect children’s safety and to restore trust in the system.”

One of the 12 recommendations that will be implemented in the short term will require all licensed child-care providers to prominently post their most recent public health inspection reports for parents to review.

For the other recommendations that require consultation with stakeholders, Jobs, Economy and Trade Minister Matt Jones said that it will take time, “We will take our time to work with our partners, both on the food side and the childcare side, to implement them in a way that people will buy into.”

“We need buy-in for a culture of food safety. So we are going to involve those who need to buy into the process,” Jones added.

Smith stated that her government is committed to making sure an event like the one in September 2023 never happens again in the province, “The review panel we set in place has done important work to review the overall outbreak situation and provide recommendations to prevent a similar outbreak from happening.

“It’s our government’s intention to act on every recommendation,” Smith added. OUTBREAK ORIGINATED FROM CATERING COMPANY The eight-week outbreak was traced back to Fueling Minds, a catering company and school lunch delivery service provider that prepared food in Calgary.

The report narrowed the E. coli down to a single meal served from the Fueling Minds central kitchen on Aug. 29, 2023.

“One meal originating from the central kitchen came out with extremely high odds as being the source of inspection. The beef meat loaf served at lunch on Aug. 29, 2023, was the probable food item containing the E. coli,” the report outlined.