LAVAL, Quebec - During the week before Christmas, the president of Maple Leaf Foods (TSX:MFI) will be coming to television screens across Canada to tout his company's obsession with food safety.

The new campaign comes several months after a deadly listeriosis outbreak killed 20 people across Canada.

The source of the outbreak was traced back to a Maple Leaf Foods processing plant in Toronto and now CEO Michael McCain wants Canadians to know what improvements have since been made at the company's 24 packaged meat facilities.

"We now dismantle our equipment, especially our slicing equipment, daily and weekly as part of enhanced cleaning and sanitization practices," he said Friday during a news conference at a hotel in Laval, north of Montreal.

Earlier in the day, reporters were invited to a nearby Maple Leaf Foods plant and had to scrub their hands at least four times before the tour.

Reporters were also required to wear head coverings, special rubber boots and smocks during a visit to the packaging area of the small Laval operation which employs about 100 people.

"Our people wear certain uniforms to ensure bacteria doesn't travel with people for cross-contamination," McCain later said, repeating numerous times that the recall of his company's meat products was over.

A company spokeswoman said focus groups indicated consumers still don't realize the recall had ended.

McCain is hoping to clarify that point during the five-day TV blitz set to begin on Monday.

"(It) will communicate with consumers that the recall is indeed over, that we have found and fixed the problem, that the products on the shelf today meet or exceed the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada requirements," he said.

The company is planning a media tour of the Toronto-area plant which was the source of the outbreak.

Despite the massive PR campaign - which is not unlike a similar one launched in the midst of the crisis - McCain said research suggests consumer confidence in the company's meat products has improved.

"Purchaser intent dropped to a very low 64 per cent," he said. "But today, I think that number is in the low 90s."

McCain also admitted Maple Leaf Foods did not do a good job communicating with consumers in Quebec which is why he made the visit to Laval.

He refused to reveal how much the food safety improvements have cost the organization which employs 23,000 people in all.

Since last summer's outbreak, listeria bacteria was detected on a telephone in the Laval plant, but McCain said that's not unusual.

"We will find (listeria) somehow in the plant. It might be in a basement, in a telephone. It might be in a freezer somewhere... You will find it relatively frequently," he said.

"The objective is to make sure it doesn't get on product contact surfaces and more importantly, it doesn't get into food.

"In all facilities, if you have a properly designed environmental management system, you will periodically find listeria and this plant is no exception," he added.

McCain also tried to downplay the massive meat recalls that Maple Leaf undertook after the outbreak.

"In the U.S. market, there's a recall just in meat and poultry once a month," he said.

"There have been 74 (recalls) in the last five years."