My review sample of a Neatfreak Everfresh Single Fashion Laundry Tote arrived the week before we took possession of our new house. That’s the house that had been marinating in cigarette smoke and cat pee for years; the house that had multiple layers of vinyl tile covering perfectly good hardwood on the second floor and the grossest kitchen ever to be ripped out of a will-be-someday bedroom and a brand new one installed on the main floor, just in case you’re new here. So, how exactly does one review a laundry bag? I had an idea.
Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, stood in front of a couple dozen Toronto-area parenting bloggers two weeks ago and said, “Twenty-two people died on our watch.” He’s referring, of course, to the listeria outbreak of August 2008 which was caused by the contamination of a slicing machine in Maple Leaf’s Toronto packing plant. He expressed devastation about the fatalities and said, “I only wish we knew then what we know today.” I believe him.
Even more important than how the people at Maple Leaf feel, however, is what they’ve done. Michael McCain and Sharon Beals, the Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance, talked with us for over an hour, detailing the steps they have taken to transform the way Maple Leaf handles food safety. They hired the former head of the American Meat Institute, Dr. Randy Huffman, to serve as the Chief Food Safety Officer. They’ve invested in new and engaging training procedures and spent $24 million dollars in upgrades to their facilities’ infrastructure. They now bake or steam clean all their equipment at high temperatures to kill any bacteria growth.
And they test. They conducted over 125, 000 routine listeria tests in their facilities in 2009. They test at numerous thresholds, many of which are at a safe remove from any food to alert them to the presence of bacteria. Listeria is ubiquitous, so it will be found. The staff at Maple Leaf Foods are making it their business to know where it is. As Michael McCain said, “If we can’t find any, then we’re not looking hard enough.” There is no such thing as perfection in the food industry, but Maple Leaf is striving for excellence.
As I said, I believe them. I believe they are doing their utmost to raise food safety standards, not only at Maple Leaf, but also across the country. I believe their food is safe. As Emma Willer from herebewillers.com so aptly noted at the PR dinner, as parents we trust these companies to deliver safe food to our dining tables. Our life is a never-ending juggle of a million things and here, in Canada, we simply trust that at least the food we buy at the grocery store will not make our families sick. Yes, we need them to deliver on their safety promise.
Don’t think that means that parents aren’t concerned about the quality of the food they feed their families, though. In fact, there may never have been a generation of parents more concerned about what goes onto their children’s plates. And as the discussion between Maple Leaf Foods and the bloggers progressed it became abundantly clear that Maple Leaf needs to look above and beyond food safety and sell us on the nutritional and ecological value of their products.
Yes, keep doing all those listeria tests. Please do. But what this group of parents wanted addressed were concerns about nitrites and nutrition, BPA-free packaging, localized production, and the standards and quality of the very livestock from which our meat comes. As Maureen Dennis from weewelcome.ca said, Maple Leaf is the biggest buyer of meat in our country and they have the power to raise the standards of animal treatment and meat quality across the board.
What do parents want from a food company? We want to know that the long-term health of our families is important to them. We want to know that nutrition and ecologically sustainable practices are a priority. We want to know that not only is their food safe, it’s downright good for you. And how did Maple Leaf fare? Alright, I guess.
We heard that nitrates aren’t all that bad and everything in moderation. We heard about Maple Leaf’s Natural Selection line of cold cuts that contain no preservatives or artificial ingredients. We learned that their packaging is out-sourced to a reputable company and that Maple Leaf is concerned with providing top quality meat.
Michael McCain and Sharon Beals answered all these questions as best they could, but guess what? They’re not nutritionists and they didn’t seem fully prepared for the direction the discussion took. Now I know that Maple Leaf probably has an entire nutrition division and there are likely many, many people who could have better fielded the types of questions we asked. But they weren’t there. The CEO of the company and the Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance were there, and that’s fantastic, but it’s not enough. From a strictly PR point of view, I think the company should have anticipated these types of concerns and been ready to address them.
As it stands, I am definitely more likely to buy Maple Leaf for my family than I was before. I’ll still use my discretion about which of their products fit our nutritional needs, of course. And I hope that Maple Leaf Foods learns that not only do we trust them to keep us safe, we expect them to apply those same standards of excellence in providing us with healthy, nutritious and sustainable food.
And just so you know, the dinner I attended was part of a word of mouth marketing program put on by Matchstick. And the stuff I’m offering in this giveaway? Yeah, I got that stuff, too. In no way whatsoever does that have any impact on the opinions expressed in this post.
Giveaway: You could win a Maple Leaf prize pack that consists of a coupon for a free Maple Leaf Prime frozen meat product, one for a free package of Natural Selections cold cuts, and one for $5 off of any Prime product. You also get four vacuum-sealed Oven Fresh Baguettes, an apron, a digital meat thermometer, a pen and a cooler bag. Leave a comment on the Playground Confidential Facebook page (scroll down the wall to find the contest) to enter and I’ll use random.org to choose a winner next Thursday, June 17. Canada only. (You can also email me at rebecca@playgroundconfidential.com with subject line Giveaway to enter if you’d rather not use Facebook.)
1. It’s Uncomfortable, Dude. Say what you want, but we all know that it is not nice to feel overheated and sticky. Sure, when we’re freezing our collective asses off in January, we pretend that it’s going to be great. By this time, though, I think we can drop the charade.
2. Air Conditioning: Expensive and Evil. Last year we bought a portable air conditioning unit to help cool down our apartment and it worked okay. Then we got the electric bill. Ouch. This year that portable unit might help in, say, one bedroom, but the rest of the house will still be an inferno without central air. I would tell you just how expensive that is, but I’m afraid to find out. And let’s not forget the toll air conditioning takes on the environment while it’s cleaning out our bank accounts.
3. The Sun Causes Cancer (and so do sunscreens, maybe). If you do manage to drag your sticky children to the park, you need to be extra careful about sun exposure. That means juggling hats, and sunscreens (but not the chemically one, they’re bad) and water bottles and bathing suits and sand toys on top of all the other crap you need. Fun.
4. No school! Now my kids haven’t even started school yet but I know this is going to suck big time. Sure, it’ll be nice not to have to wake up early and pack lunches and all that, but then what do you do with the kids?! Since most of us will have become accustomed to making good (money-making) use of those school hours, we can’t all just hang at the beach and call it a day. Ah, child care challenges are so much fun.
5. There’s sand where?! It’s worst when you’ve been to a beach, but if you have kids it doesn’t even matter. From May to September there will be sand and it will be everywhere. It collects in their shoes and in the folds of their pants. Sometimes I swear they must be sneaking little pails of the stuff all the way home. It will be in their beds and in yours. It will be on your kitchen counter and clogging up your washing machine. And then how will you clean the sand off of clothes?
Looking for cheap boxes in which to organize my pantry.
For months now, in the lead up to and the aftermath of the move,
They have been carted around and prodded through all manner of big box hardware stores, furniture shops, and assorted salvage joints.
I know that they’re sick of it.
So when Colum asked if he could get a little turtle with a wobbly head,
And it was less than $2,
I couldn’t say no.
We took the turtle to the park where Colum played in the sandbox,
Eyeing a couple other boys his age who were building an elaborate road.
He watched how they were interacting,
And then leaned forward and started to walk his turtle toward their road.
One of the boys asked what it was that he had and knocked the turtle on his head.
“Be careful,” Colum said, “It’s my turtle.”
Again, the boy bonked the turtle — harder this time.
“Hey. Take it easy. You don’t want to break it,” said Colum.
I played with Irene and left them to resolve things on their own.
Then the boy ripped the turtle’s head right out,
(It is easily removed and replaced.)
And snatched the rest of the turtle away from my son.
Colum got up and ran over to the play structure and started going down the slide.
And I know, I know, exactly how he’s feeling.
I can taste the confusion and the rejection and the loss of his prized new toy.
I can feel his insecurity.
But now I am the adult and I know that he did nothing wrong.
Forget wrong.
He didn’t even do anything weird.
So I calmly approach the boy who is now filling up the hollow turtle’s body with sand,
And ask for the turtle.
“I’m playing with it right now,” he tells me.
“Actually, that is Colum’s turtle and he was playing with it. He asked you not to touch it, but you grabbed it anyway. So I’m going to keep it safe for him now. Thank you.”
And I thought childhood was hard the first time around.
My review sample of a Neatfreak Everfresh Single Fashion Laundry Tote arrived the week before we took possession of our new house. That’s the house that had been marinating in cigarette smoke and cat pee for years; the house that had multiple layers of vinyl tile covering perfectly good hardwood on the second floor and the grossest kitchen ever to be ripped out of a will-be-someday bedroom and a brand new one installed on the main floor, just in case you’re new here. So, how exactly does one review a laundry bag? I had an idea. 
