Food Protection Trends - March/April 2020 - 95

Christine Navarro1,2* Genevieve Cadieux,1,2
Amal Said,1 Toral Patel,1
Anne Maki3 and Nicholas Brandon2

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE
Food Protection Trends, Vol 40, No. 2, p. 95-100
Copyright© 2020, International Association for Food Protection
2900 100th Street, Suite 309, Des Moines, IA 50322-3855

Toronto Public Health, 44 Victoria St., Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M5C 1Y2
2
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto,
155 College St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 3M7
3
Public Health Ontario Laboratories, 1945-661 University
Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1M1

1*

Outbreak of Disease Caused by Salmonella
Typhimurium Associated with an Online Meal
Subscription Service in Toronto, Canada, 2016
ABSTRACT
Online food retail is an emerging business model that
presents unique food safety challenges and potential
risks. An outbreak of disease caused by Salmonella
Typhimurium was detected in Toronto, Canada in July
2016. All six confirmed outbreak-associated cases had
matching pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns
and reported exposure to chicken meals obtained from an
online meal subscription service. Food safety inspections
and a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)
audit at the kitchen where meals were prepared revealed
inadequate cooling and cold-holding of meals prior to
delivery to customer pickup points. Samples from control
poultry meals were elevated for total coliforms and Gramnegative counts, consistent with time and temperature
abuse at the food preparation kitchen. Almost 1,500
meals were voluntarily discarded by the manufacturer as
a result of the audit, and production was halted. Given
the potential for high-volume multi-jurisdictional online
food sales and the associated risk of foodborne disease

outbreaks, coordinated action is required to address this
emerging issue and prevent future illness.

INTRODUCTION
Online food retail, an emerging business model around the
world, includes a wide range of services such as online grocery shopping from supermarkets or third-party commerce
platforms; on-demand ordering of restaurant food through
third-party couriers; subscription services of individual
food items, meal kits, or prepared meals; and informal sale
of home-cooked ready-to-eat meals through social media.
Because online food sales present diverse and unique challenges for food safety regulators, controls over them tend to
be scanty and have not kept pace with the rate of innovation
(10). In Canada, where annual e-commerce sales in the food
services and drinking subsector grew by 68.8% between 2016
and 2017 to $2 billion (Canadian dollars) (15), food safety
regulations pertaining to local health authorities continue
to focus on brick-and-mortar food premises (7) and do not
specifically address these alternative business models.

*Author for correspondence: Phone: +1 416.338.7953; Fax: +1 416.338.1643; Email: christine.navarro@toronto.ca

March/April Food Protection Trends

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