Ground beef recall will be expanded again

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There could be more bad ground beef in your freezer, as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says a slaughterhouse in Alberta has failed to do enough to contain an E. coli outbreak.

Recalls will be expanded.

The CFIA says you can expect a series of expanded recall announcements soon, as they trace where all the beef produced at an XL Foods facility in Alberta has gone.

“The CFIA will continue to alert consumers as additional products are identified,” says the agency’s Dr. Brian Evans. “This will lead to a series of recall announcements over the coming days as these implicated products are traced through the food distribution supply and identification properties provided that will help consumers identify any in their possession.”

The facility is now under CFIA control and no products will be released until public safety is assured.

Evans says when the outbreak occurred, the company took initial steps to gain control. “However, based on information provided to us by XL Foods on September 26th, as well as through observations made by our full time staff present in the plant, we did determine that  deficiencies had not yet been corrected.”

Evans points out E. coli is not uncommon at slaughterhouses. But he says unlike most, this facility didn’t do enough to keep levels low.

The CFIA says it is taking aggressive action in dealing with the problem.

Evans is defending how the agency has handled the tainted ground beef scare. He says extensive testing had to be done before a recall was issued September 16th, despite them learning of an E. coli outbreak on September 4th.

“The primary issue at that time was to identify if, in fact, there was any product in the marketplace that needed to be recalled… No common product from those lots had, in fact, gone into the marketplace,” he maintains.

BCFRA assures food safety in restaurants

Thanks to high safety standards, the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association says you’ll be safer eating ground beef in a restaurant than at home.

The Ian Tostenson with the BCFRA says all chefs are expected to cook beef at 165 degrees Fahrenheit, which kills E. coli.

“All restaurants have to have food safety courses. [Secondly,] there’s the food inspectors that come in to inspect the facilities. And… the supply chain itself knows where they’ve supplied certain products, so they can chase that back,” explains Tostenson.

“XL is primarily a distributor to the retail chains, and not to the wholesale food chains. So, very little, if any, of this product got into the restaurant situation,” he adds.

Tostenson adds if you’re cooking beef at home, you should also ensure it reaches 165 degrees.