XL Foods has broken its silence and is accepting full responsibility for an outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 at its Brooks, Alta., beef slaughter plant.
“We take full responsibility for our plant operations and the food it produces, which is consumed by Canadians from coast to coast. We are doing everything we can to take the lead in an enhanced comprehensive food safety program for our plant,” said the release issued earlier today.
The plant said it will not reopen until enhanced surveillance is put in place. Daily testing results for the presence of E. coli are being supplied to Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors at the plant every day.
Read Also
Canada lifts several import tariffs on U.S. goods as talks continue
Starting September 1, Canada will adjust its tariffs on agricultural products, consumer goods and machinery, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced at a press conference in Ottawa on Friday.
The plant will also include remote video auditing of plant procedures that can be viewed daily.
It is also enhancing the high pressure, hot water wash intervention where sides of beef are washed with185 F water to eliminate any possible E. coli contamination. Computer monitoring of this critical control point will also be increased.
The plant’s staff training program will be re-designed by third party experts to improve their procedures, and quality control personnel will be hired for each shift with primary duties to monitor all sanitary practices.
CFIA president George Da Pont said there were seven issues where the company did not fully comply with food safety standards. The specific problems will be posted on the agency website.
The investigation found the plant was not doing the trend analysis required when there is a spike of positive cases. As well, it did not follow up as expected when this occurs.
When a positive sample appeared, the company did not remove the carcass or meat that was handled before and after.
“All of this did not become evident until we got all of the documentation from the plant, which we got on Sept. 10 and 11 from a series of batches,” he said at a news conference from Ottawa today.
All remaining meat in the plant is being held and tested, said Da Pont. No decision has been made on what will be done with it.
The complete text of XL Foods’ press release is available here – http://www.producer.com/?p=97027
