XL Foods plant had string of problems prior to E. coli outbreak
Posted Jan 8, 2013 7:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
New details are surfacing about the food safety record of the slaughterhouse behind Canada’s largest beef recall.
According to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail through the Access to Information Act, XL Foods was told to clean up its act five times between January and September of 2012.
Inside the plant, inspectors uncovered contamination risks and regulatory breaches on the production line, in the cooler and the storage area.
Many of the issues had to deal with sanitation; the Canadian Food Inspection Agency discovered condensation dripping from pipes and rails onto dead cattle in the cooler, employees failing to sanitize knives and hooks, animal fat and blood build-up on the stairs and improper labelling.
According to the CFIA’s investigation, at least 18 people became sick from E. coli contaminated meat processed at the plant.
The news came as no surprise to Food Safety Expert, Professor and advisor to the CFIA, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.
He tells 660News it’s his belief inspectors became complacent and didn’t put the appropriate amount of pressure on the company to address things permanently.
“What likely happened is that the company applied some temporary measures to address the issues without focusing on the long-term implications,” he says. “That’s probably why we saw the recall that we did in the fall.”
But it’s his belief the inspectors aren’t to blame.
Charlebois says this is, and always has been, a regulation issue, but says there have been great strides made in improving food safety across Canada.
He says there’s no such thing as a zero risk in the industry.
“Canadians need to accept that but at the same time we need to become better risk managers,” he explains. “We need to remember that the most important risk managers in the entire food chain is the consumer.”
“It’s also important for the regulator, the CFIA, to empower the industry and to make sure they’re actually following rules and regulations and to actually invest in the infrastructure so they might to a better job in managing risk,” Charlebois adds.
He believes things will improve even more now with the Federal Agriculture Minister’s announcement to create 16 new centres of excellence.
Gerry Ritz announced Monday the shops will provide better access to information for the industry, inspectors and consumers on food safety.
Their physical location is still a couple of years off but the Ministry announced one of those will be located in Calgary.
