Food inspectors assess beef-recall plant

Larry MacDougal / The Canadian Press Cattle graze next to XL Foods� Lakeside Packers plant at Brooks, Alta., on Monday. (CP)

OTTAWA -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency will be conducting a detailed assessment today of the Alberta processing plant at the heart of a massive tainted beef recall.

The review follows a written request from XL Foods Inc. to have its licence reinstated after it was revoked in late September due to deficiencies in its operations.

A slew of problems was uncovered following the discovery of E. coli in meat products from the Brooks, Alta., facility, which led to the recall of hundreds of products around the world and public outcry over why that recall took so long to be issued.

This week's assessment won't necessarily green-light the plant to reopen, CFIA officials said in a conference call late Monday afternoon.

"This is a pre-resumption of operation inspection; in no way should it be construed as they will be in production at this point," said Dr. Harpreet Kochhar, the executive director of western operations for the food agency.

Kochhar said reopening the plant would be a gradual process, beginning with determining whether all the issues raised by inspectors since E. coli was first detected have been addressed.

They include maintenance and sanitation issues as well as the management of E. coli risk.

"We will walk through the establishment, make sure the corrective action plans have been implemented, the food safety controls are there and, after that, we will make a recommendation to senior CFIA officials to go progressively to the next step," he said.

That would include walking through the plant again when it resumes limited operations to ensure changes have in fact been made, he said.

There was no answer at the plant's media-relations line late Monday, except for a statement recorded last week saying the company was working with CFIA officials.

All products at the plant will remain under CFIA's control during the review.

E. coli was first detected at the plant on Sept. 4, but it took 12 days for the first of an expanding series of public alerts to be issued while food inspectors scrutinized the plant's operations.

That ultimately led to the plant's licence being suspended on Sept. 27.

The number of illnesses linked to beef products from the plant stands at 11 people from four provinces, with the latest case confirmed on Monday in British Columbia.

That individual has since recovered, public health officials said.

The CFIA said Monday the XL plant exported to more than 20 countries, and products from all of them are on their way back. The Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety posted a statement on its website saying a small portion of affected products had been distributed to retailers there.

Kochhar said Sunday in addition to Canadian audits, the plant has undergone eight audits over the last four years by countries that buy its products.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials now say the amount of recalled beef imported from the XL plant is almost triple the original estimate. The U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service estimates at least 1.1 million kilograms of beef from XL Foods entered their country.

The CFIA also added more products to its list of recalls on Sunday, including raw beef and ready-to-eat products sold in B.C. under the Africa Trading and HanAhReum Mart brands, or sold at Urban Fare.

The federal government has come under fire for its handling of the E. coli scare. There have been questions raised by opposition politicians and others about whether the food safety system is working and whether there are enough inspectors after government funding cuts.

The government says it has actually increased the number of food inspectors and strengthened protections.

-- The Canadian Press

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