When news broke this week that two people had died of listeriosis after consuming a plant-based milk substitute sold by French food giant Danone, I immediately thought of the listeriosis outbreak that peaked in 2008, when deli meats made by Maple Leaf Foods killed 22 people in one of Canada’s worst food safety disasters in recent memory. As with Maple Leaf Foods, the first infections linked to Silk and Great Value plant-based milk drinks occurred nearly a year before the recall issued this month. But there’s also a stark contrast to 2008 in terms of what the public knows about that deadly outbreak, which also sickened at least 10 people. During the investigations that later uncovered misconduct in Maple Leaf’s many wrongdoings, Michael McCain, the company’s president and CEO at the time of the crisis, held regular news conferences to acknowledge the company’s wrongdoing and detail efforts to clean up production plants that produced contaminated deli meats. Danone has not held a news conference about the deaths linked to its products. Its communications have been limited to two news releases, a brief online statement and a few social media posts about the recall. And the basic facts about the outbreak remain a mystery, at least to the public. Neither Danone nor any federal department would identify the third-party company producing the contaminated beverage or the exact location of its plant. “There’s no transparency,” said Keith Warriner, a University of Guelph professor who studies food safety. “To say, ‘Well, you know, it’s a third party’ — that’s even worse.” Because I said: Can we trust the product we have? Is it third-party too? Danone did not respond to three email requests for information about the company that makes the popular drink, except to say the plant is in Ontario. As of Friday afternoon, the food maker said it could not name its suppliers “for legal reasons,” without elaborating. When I asked Health Canada for the name of the company, they directed me to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. After several exchanges, the agency advised me to contact Danone. In a subsequent email, the inspection agency, which reports to the health minister, said it could not name the manufacturer “due to confidential business information.” It said it could not immediately cite any laws or regulations preventing it from disclosing the manufacturer’s name. The inspection agency said the contaminated moonshine was made on a single assembly line dedicated to Danone products and that the line had been shut down. They ignored my questions about the status of the rest of the plant’s operations, what other products were made there and what steps were being taken to ensure those products were not contaminated as well. Dr. Warriner said that once Listeria is in the plant, it spreads quickly. He said that if the plant continues to operate, he would like to see how infections have been isolated on Danone’s production lines. Dr. Warriner also questioned whether Danone monitors food safety practices at its subcontractors’ plants or leaves that task to its suppliers. Danone, which had sales of €27.6 billion last year, claims to be the world’s largest producer of fresh dairy products and plant-based foods and beverages. In 2016, they bought the American brand Silk for $10 billion as part of an effort to expand beyond traditional products like Evian yogurt and mineral water. Demand for milk alternatives — the 18 recalled milks are made from almond, oat, walnut and coconut — has been growing, especially since the pandemic. Regardless of the cause of the listeria contamination and the circumstances of the cleanup, Dr. Warriner said it’s possible that more cases linked to the contaminated beverage will emerge. Symptoms of listeriosis, he said, can appear up to three months later. “It’s kind of a latent pathogen,” he said. “It moves from cell to cell.” Listeria doesn’t cause odors in food or beverages, nor does it show other signs of contamination, Dr. Warriner said. And what makes it worse is that most of the recalled products have expiration dates well beyond October. As a result, consumers who aren’t following the news closely could still be consuming contaminated products. “I wouldn’t be tempted to go out today and buy almond milk,” he said.