Maple Leaf Foods has reopened their Toronto meat processing plant which was linked to a nationwide listeria outbreak that has claimed 17 lives.
The North York plant, where the listeria bacterium was found embedded deep inside slicing equipment, had been closed since August 20.
Maple Leafs Foods made the reopening announcement this afternoon at a news conference
"We recognize that we have to rebuild confidence, we've got 100 years of history in our brand," Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain says.
"I think there are some that respect the fact that we handled this in a responsible, precautionary way."
McCain says the company had cleaned the machines on a daily, weekly and monthly basis as recommended by the manufacturer. It wasn't until the machines were disassembled that they found an area in a machine where the listeria bacteria had likely accumulated.
There will be shifts starting at the plant within a week.
More than 220 products from the North York plant distributed across Canada were recalled as a result of the listeriosis outbreak.
