Congratulations to Belinda: winner of the Maple Leaf Goodie Bag giveaway!

Maple Leaf Foods partnered with Matchstick hosted a Maple Leaf Roundtable event held at Quincy Cooking School in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Invited to this event were 20 other mommy bloggers located in the Vancouver area along with myself to listen to Jeanette Jones Vice President, Communications for Maple Leaf and Sharon Beals Senior VP, Food Safety and Quality Assurance for Maple Leaf.

Both Jeanette and Sharon did a great job in sharing the commitment that Maple Leaf is making to becoming a global leader in food safety as a result of the incident that occurred in August 2008 with the Listeriosis illnesses and tragic deaths that were linked to their products.

Sharon Beals shared all of the actions that they are taking as an organization to not only ensure that they will never be in a position like that of August 2008 but that as an organization they will be a leader in food and safety within their 91 plants across the globe. 

What I was very pleased to see what the open and honest nature that Maple Leaf Foods put forth during our discussion.  They opened the floor to questions and since the audience was made up of not only mommy bloggers….but, moms themselves, there were some very pointed questions thrown at the Maple Leaf Executives.  It was a frank discussion that assured me and the other mommy bloggers that Maple Leaf has taken all of the necessary steps to prevent an outbreak from re-occurring.  These steps span from significantly increasing their cleaning practices and implementing unannounced “spot checks” in each of their plants to becoming GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) certified.  This certification isn’t something that all meat plants ARE REQUIRED to take part in.  Maple Leaf Foods has chosen to take the necessary steps to become certified which was great to see.

As a mom of two young children who eat prepared meat on a regular basis I was keen to understand the steps taken by an organization like Maple Leaf Foods to ensure safety in the food preparation.  And I have to tell you that I was pleasantly surprised.

Then the fun part came….we were served a wonderful dinner of the various Maple Leaf Product Line (see pics below) and had time to mingle with the other mommy bloggers and talk about our thoughts on what we had just learned.  It was a fun night overall and I am very pleased to have taken part in a great and informative evening.  Below are pictures of me and Naomi Jesson, Wendy Irene and the other wonderful Mommy and Dad Bloggers who attended.

Thanks Maple Leaf Foods!

 Giveaway Guidelines:

Enter to win a Maple Leaf Foods Prize Pack by leaving a comment below on tips you have to keep food safe in your home or while traveling.

Maple Leaf Foods would love to hear YOUR feedback on their company and products.  To fill out a short survey please click on the link below.

 http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/308859/feedback

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