Posted: March 8th, 2010 - 3:27pm by Doug Powell

Being married to someone who teaches French can be useful when I run across a story that has listeria and fromage in it, but can’t make out anything else. Amy thought it was of interest so assigned it to her translation class.

In fall 2008, there was a couple of outbreaks of listeria in cheese in Quebec that led to 38 hospitalizations, of which 13 were pregnant and gave birth prematurely. Two adults died and there were 13 perinatal deaths.


The Quebec government cracked down, especially on makers of cheese from raw milk.

Last week, Le Soleil reported the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) is ready to take on the costs of analysis of all artisanal cheeses for one more year in order to ensure they contain no pathogens.

The screening and prevention project was put in place for one year in October 2008 at the end of the listeria crisis. Every month, MAPAQ inspectors visited cheesemakers in order to detect the Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli, Salmonella, and Staphyloccocus aureus. The goal is to reassure consumers of the quality of Québécois cheeses and to guide cheesemakers towards self-testing. The bill was estimated at $1 million.

The artisanal cheesemakers have denounced the omnipresence of inspectors in their premises since the beginning of the listeria crisis, judging that inspectors don’t know their reality and are proving to be excessively zealous.