The Government of Alberta says it is working to implement recommendations regarding food safety in childcare facilities. (Photo: Oksun70 | Dreamstime.com)

By David Opinko

Provincial Politics

Alberta taking action to make food in childcare centres safer

Jul 29, 2024 | 3:20 PM

The Government of Alberta says it will work to implement a series of recommendations on how to ensure food served in childcare facilities in safe.

In August 2023, an outbreak of E. Coli occurred at 11 licensed facilities in Calgary, which resulted in 359 lab-confirmed cases. A total of 38 children and one adult were hospitalized.

In light of the outbreak, the province established the Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Review Panel to create guidelines for how similar situations can be avoided in the future.

Premier Danielle Smith says situations like the one in Calgary simply cannot happen again.

“The review panel we set in place has done important work to review the overall outbreak situation to provide recommendations to prevent a similar outbreak from happening. It’s our government’s intention to act on every recommendation we can to protect children’s safety and to restore trust in the system,” says Smith.

MULTIPLE SERVICES AVAILABLE ONLINE

Red Deer RCMP customer service counter under construction

10m ago

"BUILDING COMMUNITY"

Red Deer clubs give back to the community in annual Service Week

10m ago

bittersweet symphony

New executive director starts at Red Deer Symphony Orchestra

15h ago

The panel has since come back with 12 primary recommendation and 27 sub-recommendations, all centered around the themes of:

• Fostering a culture of food safety that supports high-quality, safe and healthy learning environments for children
• Public policy, legislation and inspection systems for food safety
• System alignment and integration

A release from the Alberta Government states that work is already underway to increase the frequency of inspections at childcare and food distribution facilities, as well as to improve response times in childcare centres where food safety concerns have been raised.

Planning is also underway to require all licensed childcare providers to prominently post their most recent public health inspection reports for parents to review.

While some of the recommendations can be implemented right away, the government says others will be phased in over time, especially ones that could require changes to legislation. Others may require further analysis or engagement with parents, childcare staff or the food services industry.

The full report from the panel can be found on the Government of Alberta’s website.

Diana Batten, Alberta NDP Critic for Childcare and Children & Family Services, issued the following statement on the final report from the Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Review Panel:

“The health and well-being of Albertans, especially children, must always be a priority of government.

“It took the UCP government a full week to show any form of public accountability as the E. coli outbreak in Calgary unfolded. At least 448 children and daycare staff were impacted by one of the largest E. coli outbreaks in our country’s history — including 38 children and one adult who were hospitalized for severe illness.

“We all learned after the fact that health inspectors, who are already under-resourced, had discovered critical violations at the central kitchen supplying food to the impacted daycares. Today’s announcement doesn’t include additional resources or funding for health inspectors.

“The UCP government and the daycare provider allowed the well-being of children and staff at these daycares to be at risk by not addressing those critical health violations. This cannot be allowed to happen again. However, it is still uncertain where public health will fall in Danielle Smith’s dismantling of Alberta Health Services making the path forward on today’s recommendations unclear.

“Every parent, at a bare minimum, should expect that a facility they are trusting with the care of their child will be safe and free of harm.”

—

For local news delivered daily to your email inbox, subscribe for free to the rdnewsNOW newsletter by visiting rdnewsNOW.com. You can also download the rdnewsNOW mobile app on Google Play and the Apple App Store for all the latest updates on this and other stories.

(With files from rdnewsNOW)