BROOKS, Alta. — Alberta’s labour movement wants a public inquiry into what went wrong at XL Foods’ beef plant in Brooks. It was closed after E. coli contamination was found in meat processed more than a month ago. “Confidence in the Alberta beef brand has been shaken, confidence in our industry has been shaken, our […] Read more
Tag Archives Food Safety
Unions call for public inquiry to restore consumer confidence in beef supply chain
E. coli costs can run high
Difficult to measure | At least $50 million worth of meat will be destroyed starting this week
It can’t be seen and it’s easily killed at high temperatures, but E. coli O157:H7 can have a devastating impact. “E. coli is a scourge,” said Kevin Grier, senior market analyst with the George Morris Centre. Few people would have believed after the first recall of tainted beef from XL Food’s slaughter plant in September […] Read more
CFIA closes XL plant in Alta. over E. coli tainted beef
The XL Foods meat processing plant at Brooks, Alta., halted operations today following loss of its licence from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The plant, one of two major federally inspected cattle slaughter and processing facilities in Western Canada, has had some of its meat subject to recall since last week. Recalls on an expanding […] Read more
Resistant bacteria ‘no concern at all’ if food properly cooked
Researchers are continuing to study the threat of antibiotic-resistant pathogens and how they could compromise food safety. A recent study in Alberta surveyed retail meat for resistance. Mueen Aslam, a research scientist for Agriculture Canada, conducted the study of chicken, turkey, beef and pork samples, which isolated three types of commensal bacteria: E. coli, enterococci […] Read more
Media missing whole story: official
QUEBEC CITY — Reported cases of food-borne illness dropped 23 percent in the United States between 1991 and 2009. In that same period, media coverage of food borne illness and food recalls increased 250 percent. Reasons for this apparent paradox and the differences between perception and reality were at the heart of Richard Raymond’s speech […] Read more
Poor kitchen hygiene equals illness
TORONTO — When incidents of food-borne illness erupt in Canada, the search for a culprit usually turns to the farm or food processing sectors. However, a new report from the Conference Board of Canada argues that the attention paid to those two parts of the food chain is usually exaggerated. Of almost seven million cases […] Read more
Loblaw official takes heat over food safety comment
Farmers’ market advocates wasted no time demanding a retraction after the head of Canada’s largest grocery store chain said produce from farmers’ markets will kill a consumer someday. Loblaw Cos. Ltd. quickly said executive chair Galen Weston was simply calling for more food inspection throughout the system and not singling out farmers’ markets. But in […] Read more
Food inspection agency needs to provide clear answers to calm concerns
Lord knows, MPs do not typically look to journalists for ideas on what they should be doing, but here is a suggestion, offered free-of-charge. A parliamentary committee, agriculture or other, would be doing the country a service by launching hearings into what is going on at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It is one of […] Read more
Imported food faces less scrutiny
Food imports face far less rigorous inspection than Canadian food exports and the result is a Canadian population at risk, says the president of the union representing federal food inspectors. Bob Kingston, president of the agriculture union of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, also accused a senior Canadian Food Inspection Agency official Feb. 15 […] Read more
