Updated: Thu Sep. 04 2008 5:47:50 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

Cheese produced at an Ontario plant has been added to the long list of products feared tainted with the potentially deadly Listeria bacteria.

The latest addition comes just one day after Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed to launch an independent investigation designed to prevent similar outbreaks in the future.

Several products from Ivanhoe Cheese Inc. in Madoc, Ont. are now on the recall list, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday.

The products have best-before dates from Feb. 20 to March 1, 2009. They were sold between Aug. 20 and Sept. 3.

The potentially at risk products have the brand names Ivanhoe, Great Canadian, Iqbal Products, according to the CFIA website.

The varieties of cheese at risk include cheddar, marble (brick and cheddar), asiago, gouda, Swiss, Parmesan, Mozzerella, Havarti, Colby, Brick, and various feta package sizes.

The products were distributed to Ontario retail stores and may have also been sold at deli counters.

The CFIA has not suggested there is a link between the latest recall products and a deadly listeriosis outbreak linked to tainted meat from a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto.

"We do routinely issue alerts throughout the year for Listeria," CFIA spokesperson Garfield Balsom told CTV Newsnet on Thursday.

"Coming on the heels of the Maple Leaf outbreak it seems a bit intense. We would have to look at the long term processes to see if there are any trends developing here ... every warning now is probably getting more attention."

The Maple Leaf outbreak has been linked to the deaths of 13 people nationwide.

Products still in stores

On Wednesday, Maple Leaf products that had been recalled over listeriosis fears, were found on the shelves in at least two Montreal stores.

CTV Montreal found a box of Hygrade pepperoni sticks -- included in the recall list -- at a convenience store. The owner said his family had purchased the products from a supplier about two weeks ago, but he had not been told it should be taken off the shelves.

"At another convenience store, CTV Montreal found Shopsy's pepperoni sticks that had also been included in the recall list. Their product code had "97B" -- linking it to the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Ontario that has been linked to the outbreak.

Comments are now closed for this story

Roadrobber
With the tainted meat, some vegetarians were touting their lifestyle as the best one. Now that there has been listeria concerns regarding both mushrooms and cheese, should we now avoid vegetables and milk products as well. That leaves only fruit...oh my.

Phil
Anti-Bacteria injected into animals we eat and pesticides on vegetables is backfiring at the expense of our foods and health.

Furthermore, big money tied in to the food supply results to a focus on the economic health of a company. Cooperation not competition (take over bids) should be the order when it comes to the need to eat.

That's what happens when large companies stifle local operations. In the long run.

Jimbo
If baby carrots or milk turns up infected as well I am going to open a can on someone

Suspicious Consumer
I'm very disappointed to see that recalled foods are still being sold in a few convenience stores. A few weeks ago I mentioned to a friend that I felt that the tainted products would still be sold due to ignorance or greed. Disappointedly it seems that my prediction has come true. While the convenience stores are stating that they did not know, how could that truely be so. The recalls have been in the media for some time now, unless these convenience stores, employees and management do not have access to newspapers, internet or television then I would suspect greed will be the underlying issue as to why tainted food continues to be sold.

Anthony
Hmm it is getting worse out there, from now on I will probably eat only a home made bread and sardines, that is to say before they are recalled as well..

Intelligent Vegetarian
Regardless of whether vegetables/milk products are now included among listeria outbreaks, given the choice of a vegetarian or non-vegetarian diet.....I'll go with the better (safer) odds of sticking to a vegetarian diet. To think that a non-vegetarian diet is healthier is either ignorance or buying into the propaganda of the meat industry.

Roger T
This is becoming a national disgrace to all Canadians. If the Gov't can't even protect food safety than there is serious flaws. More focus internally rather than externally on other countries internal affairs.

Where is our tax money going!

T
What am I going to eat now?? I'm scared of everything

Jack
I don't get it. Until a few weeks ago 'listeriosis' was not a word we were familiar with. Now they're finding it in meat, cheese and mushrooms in all different locations. I think there's a lot more to this bacteria that we're not being told. Scary.

Canadian All The Way
So;
- We have lousy highways, which get clogged with one single accident.

- We have poor air quality.

- We have bacteria in our food.

Is that the "High" Canadian standard of living? Did I miss something?

And I'm paying my taxes to fund wars in other countries?

Gail
I understand the "government" doesn't pick our food, wash our food, sell our food, deliver our food. We have to believe that our food is safe. I am sure that all companies have Quality Control to ensure their products are safely/cleanly prepared. If so, then they're QC is not working properly. These things happen mainly due to human error. Our hospitals seem to be places where you go to get sick because staff/visitors don't wash their hands and disease spreads. I'm glad the PM is going to have this tainted meat situation investigated and now it seems mushrooms and cheese too.

Jon Chow
Actually, Mushrooms aren't even a vegetable. It's more closely linked to being a fruit. In reality is it simply a fungus, so neither vegetable nor fruit.