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You are here: Home / Archives for Products & Reviews

maple leaf foods – a pledge for our safety

June 22, 2010 by Wendy S

A few weeks ago I was invited by Matchstick to attend a roundtable dinner with Maple Leaf foods.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  They had a huge recall due to listeriosis.  It was scary and it affected a lot of people.

So why me?  Because I blog and because I’m a parent.  They wanted to get out the message about their new safety pledge.

Upon arrival we were treated to appetizers and some mingling with the other invitees and Michael McCain, President and CEO.

It was nice to chat with him. We talked about kids and and families.  His kids are older and he expressed how much he’s going to miss having in his home; his kids are all growing up and moving out to start their own lives.  He spoke from the heart; family really means a lot to him.

When we all sat down for dinner, Michael spoke to all of us.

“We killed 22 people.”

It was a statement and it was heart-felt.  I was really impressed.  He didn’t try to cover it up and he didn’t come up with excuses.  What Michael and Maple Leaf foods did do is come up with a process and a pledge that this wouldn’t happen again.

The biggest part of this pledge, which Michael covered in detail, is their enhanced food safety protocols.

  1. New sanitation protocols are in place to ensure we effectively reduce the potential for bacterial harbourage points in building and equipment.
  2. We have strengthened our approach to environment, equipment and product sampling, testing and data analysis to find any potential contamination sooner.
  3. We have documented new protocols into new Standard Operating Procedures, obtained CFIA approval, and rolled them out across Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, involving training of our people.
  4. Maple Leaf has appointed Dr. Randall Huffman to the position of Chief Food Safety Officer, the first such position in Canada. Dr Huffman assumed this position effective January 5, 2009, reporting to Michael H. McCain, President and CEO.

There is much more detail on their website.

What are the other companies doing?

One thing that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about is “What are the other companies doing? Are they being this safe?”  Maple Leaf Foods thought they were being safe and they ended up killing 22 people.  Are the other food processing and packaging companies learning from Maple Leaf Foods’ mistakes and being extra cautious?  As a consumer, I can only hope that the food products that I buy for my family are safe and won’t harm them.

Not only did Maple Leaf Foods tell us what they are doing to keep us safe, they want consumers to be safe at home as well.  Here are some tips:

Food safety tips to keep top of mind:
  1. Keep hand washing soap in the kitchen so it is easily accessible and wash your hands with soapy warm water for at least 20 seconds prior to starting meal preparation and during any new stage from preparation to meal time.
  2. Keep a clean kitchen. Keeping your kitchen clean and tidy can reduce the chance of bacteria build-up.
  3. Keep raw foods separated from cooked and ready-to-eat foods to avoid cross-contamination.
  4. Carefully monitor and check best-before dates and package integrity of perishable products. Do not keep products beyond expiration date printed on the packaging.
  5. Keep separate cutting boards, utensils and platters for raw meat, poultry and seafood and for ready-to-eat/cooked foods.
  6. Keep cold foods cold (4°C or below).
  7. Keep hot foods hot (60°C or above).
  8. Keep a working meat thermometer on hand to check the internal temperatures of cooked foods. Always cook meat to the safe internal temperatures.

Please read all of the amazing information on their website and I can’t even begin to go into the amount of detail that they do.

Plus I want to talk about the food! It being a round-table dinner, they fed us! And it was yummy.

I don’t normally buy “ready-to-cook” foods because of the amount of salt. But I think on the odd occasion, I would by the Dijon Mustard and Herb chicken breasts. They were very good. We also had potatoes and vegetables. Oh, and how could I forget…we started with their Demptster’s Over Fresh bread which they topped with garlic butter and cheese.

And the best part was we got to bring some chicken and bread home. My family loved it! We cooked the chicken and checked the temperature with the digital meat thermometre that they included.

You, my dear readers, get to get in on the chicken action as well. I have a gift cooler bag filled with bread, coupons, digital meat thermometre and other goodies to give away.

If you would like to win this nice little gift, let me know
what things you do in your kitchen for food safety?
The contest is open to Canadians only and will run until Sunday, June 27th and the winner will be drawn at 10pm.
———-
Maple Leaf Foods and Matchstick invited me to the round table dinner
and gave me a gift bag for participating.  All of the views and opinions expressed are my own.

Filed Under: body mind spirit, Life, Products & Reviews Tagged With: health, safety

make that 4 in 9

May 26, 2010 by Wendy S

Not good odds.
I was happy to get an appointment today with our family doctor.  He had a cancellation so we were able to get in this morning.

Completely an aside, but I love our doctor.  He’s always on time….but you never feel rushed.

Once we were in the office, I showed him the copy of the report from the doctor at the walk-in clinic and the information about the antibotics that were prescribed.  He looked at her ears, thoat and felt her neck.  He agreed with the ear infection diagnosis. 

I pointed out that this is her 3rd infection in 5 months.  He said “and her 4th since August.”  Wow.  That’s a lot.  So he sent a referral letter off to the ENT doctor and we wait.  He said it could take a week or so to get a call to schedule the appointment. 

I’m trying very hard not to worry.  The idea of her getting tubes is a bit scary.  I know that lots of kids get them, but I think becuase I don’t know enough about them I’m worried. Going into the appointment, I really want to stress to this ENT doc that I want tubes to be a last resort.  We need to know what all the options are.

BigDaddy has been doing some graphics work for a homeopatic pharmacy so I’m going to see what they can tell me about ear infections.  I’m willing to try anything to avoid surgery.  Stitches in her face are one thing, but surgery where she will be unconcious is another.

So again, I’m going Google crazy trying to find out as much info as I can.  I want to know what questions i should be asking.  Anyone else out there “been there done that” and want to share their wisdom with me?  What was the sequence of events leading up to your child getting tubes? Was other treatments tried first?


Have you signed up for your Lay’s Chip Trips account yet?  Register by May 31st with my bonus code MAPSG‐RLBLG and you’ll get free 10 points.  That is enough to get a discount or two!  See here for more details.

Filed Under: body mind spirit, Life, peanut, Products & Reviews Tagged With: ChipTrips, health

the long weekend is here!

May 22, 2010 by Wendy S

Everyone always talks about how they are looking forward to the long weekend so they can get a break from work and relax.

I really don’t see that happening around here.

Tomorrow morning, if it isn’t raining, we’ll be heading outside to mow the lawn, trim the edges and weed the garden.  But if it’s raining, we’ll be vacuuming, dusting and washing as much of the house as we can.  Inside and out there is always work to be done.

We will be taking a break when we wander down the street to our friend’s place for a BBQ and fire works.  Our friend works shifts, so tomorrow will be his Victoria Day fireworks celebration.  Works for me!

Sunday morning we’ll head to church and get rejuvinated for another week.  With the girls in Sunday School now, BigDaddy and I get to sit, relax and be refueled for about 40 minutes.  This this followed by coffee and conversation with friends.

BigDaddy will be heading out with the senior youth group for some horse back riding.  One of the youth leaders lives on a ranch with horses and she had kindly offered to have 8 kids over to ride.  These kids will have their own paparatzzi as BigDaddy catches it all on film (that phrase doesn’t really makes sense anymore in a digital age).

Sunday night will involve a nice family dinner and who knows what else.  Then there’s Monday.  Ah, yes.  A possible day of relaxation or maybe we’ll use some of our Lay’s Chip Trip points and do something fun!  Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Hope all my Canadian readers enjoy their long weekends!!

(And don’t forget to sign up for your free Lay’s Chip Trips account with my bonus code and get 10 free points…that’s enough for several of the activities available)

Filed Under: family, fun, Products & Reviews Tagged With: ChipTrips, Oh Canada

lazy days of summer? not any more!

May 20, 2010 by Wendy S

Yesterday I talked about creating new summer memories with my family.  BigDaddy and I have jobs that don’t allow us to have a whole summer off like the kids do, so we have to make the most of our weekends (tho I’m sure we’ll take a few extra days here and there to make some weekends a bit longer).

Lay’s® has a super amazing promotion on right now that is going to make those weekend trips a lot easier on our budget. And that will allow for a lot more fun!

Lay’s® Chip Trips offers Canadians the opportunity to celebrate a whole season of fun with friends and family at their favourite local attractions.

It’s very easy to participate!

With every bag of Lay’s® chips that you purchase, there is a unique code that you can use to redeem points towards your trip.

Create a Lay’s® Chip Trips account and register your points. Then use your points to claim great savings on fun, affordable things to do with your friends and family all summer long.

There are so many different choices of things to do Canada-wide…from restaurants and hotels to local attractions and amusement parks…there is something for everyone!  And one bag of Lay’s® is enough to start claiming great discounts right away!
2 new flavours = 2 x points!

Lay’s® is very excited to announce their newest flavours: BBQ Rib and Cheddar and Sour Cream. With the purchase of these 2 new flavours you get double the points.

Get started on your adventure right now!

Sorry but this offer has expired –> To help you get going on your first trip, Lay’s® has given me a bonus code for my readers to use to get their first 10 points free!  Within 6 hours of registering your account, use the code MAPSG‐RLBLG until May 31st to get 10 free points.

And you can become a fan of  Lay’s® Chip Trips on Facebook!

We’re really looking forward to checking out the fun things to do in and around our community.  And you know I’ll blog about each adventure we go on.

To find out more about the fun, Lay’s® Chip Trips and to get started on your summer activities, click the link below (and it will be on my right side bar for easy access)


Hope you all have a great summer!


Disclosure — I am participating in the Lay’s Chip Trips program by Mom Central on behalf of Frito Lay. 
I received Lay’s Chip Trip points and a gift card to offset my trip costs to facilitate this post. 
The opinions on this blog are my own.

Filed Under: family, fun, Products & Reviews Tagged With: ChipTrips, momcentral

happy earth day: being treesponsible

April 23, 2010 by Wendy S

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to learn about Majesta and their BeTreesponsible movement.

For every 1 tree that they use to make their paper products, Majesta will plant 3 new trees.  They hope to plant 1 million trees in 2010.

As part of learning about this amazing movement, our family got to try their toilet paper, paper towel and facial tissues.  And for “eco” products, they work really well.  The tissue and toilet paper were surprisingly soft.  My family definitely prefers the Majesta Soft and Green toilet paper to the kind we usually by.

But not only are the products soft and durable during their expected use, they are amazingly biodegradable.

We were give 5 sheets of Charmin, 5 sheets of Majesta and 2 water bottles.  We filled the water bottles 3/4 of the way full and added the sheets to each bottle.  Watch what happened:

Water:
Water with toilet paper:
Shaken:

Charmin (left) and Magesta (right)

5 little shakes and the Majesta had already started to break apart. Where the Charmin is still in one piece. That’s crazy!

I know that our house will be switching to Majesta Soft and Green from here on out.  

How would you like to change more than just the toilet paper in your bathroom??  What about making green renovations all over your house??

You can go to Majesta’s site to enter for a chance to WIN $15,000 towards a Green Makeover.

The $15,000 prize can go towards any ‘green’ home project, for example, landscaping or home improvement projects.

If we were to win, we’d do any number of projects around our house:

  • replace the remaining old windows
  • remove all the carpet to decrease the dust in the house
  • install “green” floors – like cork or bamboo
  • replace the insulation in the walls of the bedrooms upstairs and add insulation to the attic space
  • get all the ducts properly taped to reduce leakage
  • add fans to the ducts to increase air flow
  • get a proper energy assessment to see what else could be done to make us more energy effient

I’m sure I could go on, but I want to hear what YOU would do with $15,000!  So enter the Earth Day Makeover contest and then comment here!

“I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central and received a Majesta informational gift pack and Chapters gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

    Filed Under: body mind spirit, Life, Products & Reviews Tagged With: its not easy being green, momcentral

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    Why “mapsgirl” ?

    Wendy is a cartographer! She draws maps!

    When not mapping, Wendy is also a mom to two daughters. They are the inspiration of this blog. Passionate about child passenger safety, Wendy was a certified Car Seat Technician in Ontario, Canada from 2008 to 2020. [Read More …]

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