Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is recalling nine wiener products because they may contain traces of the Listeria bacteria.

The wieners were sold under the Hygrade, Shopsy's and Maple Leaf brand names. The affected wieners are being removed from inventory and store shelves and being returned to the company.

Maple Leaf said there have been no reported illnesses and the recall was a precautionary measure only.

Ivalo Stoianov, a hot-dog vendor in Ottawa, told CTV News he's had to reassure his customers he is not selling food on the recall list.

"Many people come and ask me if this is a Maple Leaf product," he said.

The company said all the products were produced at a Maple Leaf facility in Hamilton, Ont. that has a stringent food safety testing program.

The best-before dates on the recalled products range from Sept. 8 to Sept. 17. The dates, the number for the Hamilton plant "EST. 611" and Line 1 "L1" are on an inkjet stamp located on the edge of the packaging.

Dr. Randall Huffman, the chief food safety officer at Maple Leaf, said in a statement the company is "ultra-cautious about Listeria" and that the bacteria levels found in random product samples is at very low levels.

"Listeria exists in all food plants and many consumer fridges. It is commonly found in the environment and one in 200 packages of all meat and poultry products in the marketplace will likely contain Listeria monocytogenes, even higher in other ready to eat foods," he says in the statement.

"...Maple Leaf is doing more aggressive and frequent Listeria testing at our plants than regulations require, and that means we're finding it more and acting whenever there is a potential and even remote food safety risk."

The statement continues to say that Maple Leaf has a safety net of "hold and test" quarantine procedures, but that the effectiveness of the program depends on testing methods that the federal government has not yet approved.

It says it can't be sure the recalled products are actually contaminated with Listeria because currently government-approved testing methods are so slow.

"We urge the Canadian government to approve commercially proven in-plant rapid testing methods which are now widely in use in the United States and Europe," the company says in its statement.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled products are asked to contact the Maple Leaf Consumer Response Line at 1-800-568-5801 to arrange to have them replaced. Or, they can return the products to the store where they were purchased for a full refund or product replacement.

The recall comes a year after a major listeriosis outbreak last summer claimed 22 lives across Canada. That outbreak was traced to a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says food contaminated with Listeria may not look or smell spoiled. It notes that Listeria, unlike most bacteria, can survive and sometimes grow on foods stored in the refrigerator.

The bacteria can cause listeriosis, an illness that results in high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness, nausea and vomiting. For most people, the risk posed by Listeria is low; however pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk.