Details from the final report into the investigation of food safety in Alberta’s licensed childcare centres will be released Monday.
The Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Review Panel, made up of people from various backgrounds in both the for-profit and not-for-profit childcare sectors, the food service industry, and experts in food safety and public health, was formed in November 2023 in the wake of a Calgary daycare’s historic E. coli outbreak.
The UCP government promised a review into food safety in kitchens that make food for licensed childcare facilities in Alberta after 448 cases of E. coli were found in children, parents, and guardians connected to 11 Calgary daycares. Thirty kids and one adult were hospitalized as a result of the infection, and 23 of those patients were diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome. Eight of those patients required dialysis.
An investigation determined all of the sites were receiving food from the Fueling Brains Academy Centennial kitchen.
In this case, the culprit was thought to be tainted meatloaf and vegan loaf.
The two directors of KidsU Centennial, operating as Fueling Brains Academy and Fueling Minds Incorporated, are facing several municipal bylaw charges to which they have pleaded not guilty, as well as a $10 million class action lawsuit filed on behalf of impacted families.
Former Calgary police Chief Rick Hanson led the panel which also included an Alberta Children’s Hospital infectious diseases specialist, an agriculture and environmental science professor, a restaurant owner, the owner of an early learning and child care centre, and the president and CEO of YMCA Calgary.
The panel reviewed the Public Health Act, the Food Regulation, the Institutions Regulation, the Early Learning and Child Care Act and Regulations as well as other applicable standards, guidelines or operating procedures to improve food safety in licensed child care facilities as part of its work.
An online survey on the subject was also open for Albertans to complete earlier this year.
Hanson will join Premier Danielle Smith, Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Jobs, Economy, and Trade, Matt Jones, and Alberta Health Services’ senior medical officer of health, Dr. Laura McDougall, to speak to the details of the panel’s final report at 1:30 p.m. in Calgary.