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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

No early reason to shut beef plant: feds

Licence now suspended amid widening scare

By: Terry Pedwell

Posted: 09/29/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

OTTAWA -- There was no initial reason to order a public recall or shut down operations at the southern Alberta meat-packing facility that's at the centre of a widening tainted-beef scare, food-safety officials in Ottawa said Friday.

Since then, the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alta., has had its operating licence suspended and products have been recalled for fear of E. coli contamination -- and more recalls are likely, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned.

When testing in the U.S. and Canada first detected a possible E. coli issue in the plant on Sept. 4, there was nothing to indicate any tainted meat had reached consumers, said Brian Evans, a special adviser to the CFIA.

"The primary issue at that time was to identify if, in fact, there was any product in the marketplace that needed to be recalled," Evans told a news conference in Ottawa.

"We did confirm that neither the product that we had found through our testing program or the product that the U.S. had identified... had gone into the marketplace. Issuing a recall for a product that isn't in the public domain isn't something that we're able to do."

Evans said further information on Sept. 10 triggered an "intensive, in-depth review" that included sending a team of specialists into the plant to search for a possible problem.

Continuing daily testing during that period did not reveal anything "to suggest that the product was of a significant concern," Evans said.

"We were 24 hours, pedal to the metal, in the plant through the (Sept. 15-16) weekend trying to satisfy ourselves that consumers were not being put at risk."

It wasn't until Thursday, however, that the plant's operating licence was suspended. XL Foods has not yet taken the steps necessary to allow the plant to resume operations, and won't be allowed to do so until it does, Evans said.

The problem, he added, appears to be the result of different factors -- none of which would by themselves normally pose a problem -- combining to create a heightened risk.

Evans said all products currently at the plant are "under CFIA detention and control," and will be released only after being tested for E. coli. Any products found to be contaminated would be sent to a landfill, he said.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture again extended its public-health alert about the company's products sold at stores in 30 states, including those of retail giant Walmart.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 29, 2012 B4

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