Meat plant disputes delays
XL Foods says it takes responsibility for its product
The Alberta company at the centre of the country’s biggest ever beef recall fired back Thursday at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for its suggestion there had been delays in handing over test data that later revealed contaminated product was slipping through undetected.
XL Foods Inc. broke its media silence to say meat from the Brooks plant was always quarantined for at least 18 hours while tests for a potentially fatal bacteria were done and the results analyzed.
“Testing results have always been supplied to CFIA inspectors at the plant every day and will continue to be,” the release said.
The statement appears to contradict repeated suggestions by CFIA president George Da Pont that the company took five days to hand over data after the agency requested information on Sept. 6 in the wake of word that shipments of beef trim at the U.S border and an unidentified Calgary plant had tested positive for E. coli 0157: H7.
WE BELIEVED XL FOODS WAS A LEADER IN THE BEEF PROCESSING INDUSTRY WITH OUR FOOD SAFETY PROTOCOLS, BUT WE HAVE NOW LEARNED IT WAS NOT ENOUGH. WE TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR PLANT OPERATIONS AND THE FOOD IT PRODUCES
XL FOODS STATEMENT
The company, owned by Nilsson Brothers Inc. of Edmonton, also expressed regret and promised that when 4,000-head-a day facility reopens it will have video audit of production line, improved quality controls and better employee training.
“We believed XL Foods was a leader in the beef processing industry with our food safety protocols,” said the statement, “but we have now learned it was not enough.”
Da Pont promised reporters a list Wednesday of the corrective actions the company needs to complete before the plant can resume operations, but by day’s end it had yet to appear on the CFIA’s website.
Meanwhile, the United Food and Commercial Workers local, which represents more than 2,200 workers at the plant, released a statement that alleges chronic food safety concerns at the facility and calls for a public inquiry.
“If we want to look at a piece of Alberta beef and be confident it is the best product in the world, we need to be reassured that it was produced and processed properly,” the statement said.
Speaking about the need to pass new food safety legislation now before Parliament, Da Pont also reiterated that his inspectors were powerless under the current Meat Inspection Act to force a speedier response by XL to the request for testing data.
“Our problem is there is no provision that we get it in a timely way and get it quickly and that is the issue here,” Da Pont told reporters.
While CFIA managers may be loathe to allow front-line staff to raise the ire of industry by flexing their enforcement muscles, the president of the federal meat inspectors union said the agency already has adequate authority under today’s law.
“The plants required to have that data on hand, they’re required to have it available for inspectors any time and so for there to be a delay in producing, it’s just not acceptable,” Bob Kingston said.
“Every inspector in the country knows this. The fact the president of CFIA doesn’t kind of alarms me.”
Kingston said the reason the company took four days to supply the critical information was because that was how long it was given by CFIA.
The details of what officials at both the food inspection agency and the company did and when are crucial to understanding whether either acted with appropriate urgency in assessing the results of tainted meat slaughtered and processed in the last week of August.
By the time the first health alert and voluntary recall was issued on Sept. 16, an estimated 1.4 million kilograms of potentially contaminated meat had been shipped to stores and restaurants across the continent and five people who ate steak from XL Foods at an Edmonton barbecue had fallen ill.
Alberta authorities are awaiting lab results on another four patients to establish whether there is a genetic link to the strain of bacteria found in meat from the plant
In neighbouring Saskatchewan, health officials are investigating 13 cases, including three where food histories indicate people ate meat that’s now been recalled.
The recall of potentially contaminated products was expanded again late Wednesday to include steaks, roasts and ground beef sold at a variety of large national chains with outlets in Alberta, plus independent retailers such as Douglas Meats in Medicine Hat and Freson Bros. stores across the province.
While test results regarding the latest production at the facility may have been available on a daily basis, Da Pont said the team of 40 inspectors and six veterinarians at XL Foods depended on numbers generated by the company much less frequently to make sure tainted product wasn’t being missed.
“There is a requirement to do a trend analysis on days when you are getting more than the average number of positive samples and once that happens they’re required to put in place measures to address that situation,” he said.
“We verify that on a weekly basis based on information that the company provides.”
Given those weekly reports, it’s still unclear why the CFIA didn’t spot a red flag sooner as analysis of the Aug. 23 slaughter that was the source of most of the contaminated meat ought to have been in inspectors’ hands before the month ended.
Harpreet Kochhar, the CFIA’s executive director of operations for Western Canada, said he didn’t know when exactly that week’s report was received or why there appears to have been a delay.
“There might have been some lag,” Kochhar said.
“It’s not specifically etched in stone what day of the week we’re going to get those results.”
Under industry norms and voluntary U.S. guidelines, plants are instructed to divert all of their production to cooking or disposal on days when the proportion of product positive tests for E. coli exceeds five per cent.
Experts says this drastic action is essential because during these spikes or “high event” days, there is an increased risk that even product that tests negative during those periods is actually contaminated.
At XL, Kochhar said inspectors at the plant were content so long as the data showed the company was diverting tainted carcasses or lots and the ones immediately before or after them on the line.
“That’s what gives us some level of confidence that food is not going out which is risky to consumers.”