Like everything else in Alberta these days, where everything turns out to be far worse than it ever needed to be, the kitchen supplying the food to the daycares is an absolute atrocious mess. This is like as bad as the Maple Leaf foods disaster a few years back....
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-ne ... i-outbreak$1:
Health inspectors identified three critical violations — including “significant evidence” of a cockroach infestation and food-handling issues — at a kitchen thought to be the origin of a large-scale E. coli outbreak at multiple Calgary child-care facilities, provincial representatives said Tuesday.
Alberta health officials said 264 lab-confirmed cases have been connected to the outbreak, an increase of 33 since Monday. The outbreak, declared Sept. 4 after dozens of children began presenting symptoms, has caused several children to be hospitalized, six of whom are on dialysis at the Alberta Children’s Hospital after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).
Currently, 25 are in hospital and 22 have been diagnosed with HUS, a serious complication that affects kidney and blood clotting functions, and is more common among this specific strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli.
“I want to be absolutely clear that this has been an extraordinary outbreak, both in terms of the numbers and the severity,” Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Mark Joffe, said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “It is certainly the largest E. coli outbreak in Alberta that I’m aware of, and it’s particularly serious given that it has largely impacted young children, who are at most risk of severe outcomes.”
An environmental inspection report of the kitchen shared by the 11 affected daycares — all shuttered in the wake of the outbreak, though six have been allowed to reopen — notes critical violations, including a pest infestation, food-handling errors and sanitation issues, as well as two non-critical violations.
“Two live adult cockroaches were observed on the sides of stainless steel equipment around the dishwashing area. The tin cat traps by the two separate two-compartment sinks had at least 20 cockroaches on the sticky pads each,” reads the report on the health inspection of KidsU Centennial – Fueling Minds Inc., dated the day after the outbreak was declared.
Additionally, the kitchen was transporting cold foods for more than 90 minutes without proper temperature control and its sanitizing liquid was improperly mixed, resulting in a zero per cent concentration in the cleaning product used for utensils and equipment.
The facility had been inspected five times this year, most recently before the outbreak in April. Critical violations were noted at the time, as they had been in multiple other recent inspections, though Joffe said the issues — again surrounding sanitization — were quickly corrected.
Joffe said the issues outlined in the latest report are a “flag” but said they’re only one piece of the comprehensive investigation Alberta Health Services officials are conducting.
“It certainly highlights that there were some critical issues on the day of the inspection. But it’s only part of the big picture,” he said. “I would not directly link it to the ongoing outbreak that we are investigating, although certainly it is part of the information that we will consider.”
Some parents are infuriated by the findings of the health inspection. Katie McLean, whose almost two-year-old daughter attends Fueling Brains Academy’s McKnight campus — one of six of the company’s facilities that AHS shuttered due to the outbreak — said she didn’t expect perfection, but the lack of temperature controls during delivery was a surprising and distressing find.
“Anybody who’s worked in the kitchen knows that inspections happen and sometimes weird things are found like cockroaches. That’s upsetting to see but, really, what’s way more upsetting for me is seeing that their transportation didn’t have proper cooling,” she said. “That is really crazy to me to see that their delivery practices were not up to standard.”
McLean’s daughter was admitted to hospital last Wednesday. After days of ups and downs and some tests pointing to potential kidney issues, the girl stabilized and was discharged on Sunday. While McLean is thankful her daughter is home and feeling better — though her parents continue to monitor for symptoms — her heart goes out to the other parents and children still at the hospital.
Five inspections this year
Cited during inspection
Fixes issues during inspection in order to get pass mark on inspection report
Goes back to running the kitchen like an open sewer as soon as the inspectors leave
Pretty good indication that the food prep business in this province regards the governmental inspection regime to be something to laugh at. Considering that the kitchen hasn't even been named by the media it's safe to assume that they'll be back in business ASAP after they go whining to the UCP about their business being "unfairly impacted".
Here's hoping the parents of the sick kids who might have their health damaged for life by this debacle sue the kitchen out of existence and sue the hell out of AHS too. The disinterested "anti red tape" UCP government deserves to pay out of the fucking nose for this one.
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