Prior to the recall in August, Maple Leaf had what would be considered a relatively aggressive sampling program for listeria in the environment. This includes two areas within the environment: the food contact surface; and the rest of the plant environment, which could take in the sides of equipment, the floors, the drains, the walls, the walkways, and so forth. So there are two separate sets of data collection. This information was being collected prior to the recall. In 2008, about 3,000 samples were collected before August.
In addition to that, there was some routine product testing at the request of customers and as part of our U.S. export requirements. But a minimal amount of product testing was taking place at that time. The expectation from CFIA at that time was also minimal. In fact, before August, there was, to our knowledge, no specific requirement to have an environmental program for food contact surfaces or for the general plant environment.
As part of the new policy that went into place April 1, these components are captured within the CFIA requirement. We view the recommendations as being quite appropriate. Maple Leaf has a program that includes daily testing of every one of our processing lines within our 24 ready-to-eat plants, together with weekly sampling. We take enough samples on the food contact surface to meet the new regulatory requirements. In addition, we test the environment, the non-food contact surfaces, as suggested in the CFIA policy. There is also a requirement to test product about six times per year, depending on the size of the facility and the risk level assigned to that product. These tests are taking place as we speak.