The improvement relates to a greater focus on preventive controls on the part of both industry and government. Indeed, the Safe Food for Canadians Act includes important enhancements in terms of authorities with respect to the requirement that businesses assess the potential routes of introduction of hazards.
This particular organism is an environmental contaminant, so great care needs to be taken in the food-processing establishment with respect to sanitation. That is the best method of preventing the emergence of this organism in foods of wide types. The organism is destroyed by processes like cooking, but many of the products in which we've seen problems with listeria are not subject to further cooking by the consumer, such as energy bars or fresh fruit. Therefore, prevention, as you've noted, is a critical component.
This investment enables the agency to enhance its work with the food processing industry, particularly as it relates to non-meat foods, to improve the oversight of their sanitation activities and, as I noted earlier, to carry out strategies such as sampling the food processing environment to identify the presence of the organism and intervene appropriately to prevent its presence in the final food.