Beef industry needs to rebuild trust
CALGARY – As Alberta’s beef reputation takes a clipping on the international stage — with grocery stores as far away as Hong Kong removing XL Foods product from their shelves — Canadian regulators must take steps to “ensure a state of calm” remains in place in global markets that import Alberta beef, an expert says.
The massive beef recall of products from the XL Foods plant expanded over the weekend, as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued further notices adding dozens of meat cuts and stores in B.C. to its long list.
U.S. authorities also issued a recent notice clarifying that the Food Safety and Inspection Service has received roughly 1.1 million kilograms of beef, steaks, roasts and other cuts from XL Foods on recall dates in question and warning consumers the products are considered “adulterated.”
The list of halted international imports of affected XL Foods beef product is also widening. A notice from the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety (CFS) advised the department is suspending the import of affected XL products “with immediate effect as a precaution.”
An initial investigation showed some of the products had already made their way to Hong Kong store shelves, according to a statement posted on the agency’s website.
“The CFS has alerted the trade and instructed the importer and distributors concerned to stop selling and start recalling the products of the affected batches,” according to the statement.
The Japan health minister also issued a warning last week to importers that shipments containing XL beef on the CFIA recall list will be seized, while Puerto Rico has also been subject to the recall.
An international beef trade expert who helped the industry navigate the mad cow crisis praised the international response to the E. coli scare as measured, and noted it’s focused only on one product — XL Food’s recalled beef — not the sector as a whole.
Ted Haney, former president of Canada Beef Export Federation said the E. coli situation is fundamentally different from the mad cow crisis, which saw borders shut to beef exports for years and stripped billions from the agriculture sector but had no effect on humans.
But Canada will have work to do in the days ahead, Haney said.
“It does provide a test of the relationship between foreign regulators and the CFIA, and measure whether the Canadian agency has rebuilt trust since the BSE crisis,” Haney said. “The fact there’s a very measured recall internationally is a positive sign of the trust.”
The CFIA must now “ensure a state of calm is maintained and confidence is in place with the anticipated resumption of operations in the plant, and paving the way for a successful return to markets,” Haney said.
In the medium term, Canada will have to blitz important international markets, including Mexico, South Korea, Russia and Japan, to reassure importers and distributors about Alberta beef as a whole, he added.