Tainted beef sample prompts Cargill recall

CALGARY — The country’s biggest meat processor is pulling more than 14,000 kilograms of ground beef from store shelves across Western Canada after random retail sampling found the product was tainted with a potentially fatal bacteria.

Cargill Meat Solutions says the meat that may be contaminated with E. coli 0157 was ground and packaged at its facility in northeast Calgary last month and sold under the Your Fresh Market label at Walmart stores in Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The extra lean ground beef sirloin, extra lean ground beef, medium ground beef and lean ground beef was sold in 475-gram, 900-gram and 1.6-kilogram packages. All carry a best-before date of either Nov. 28 or 29.

While there have been no reported illnesses connected to the ground beef, federal food safety officials are warning consumers not to eat the recalled product.

No information was released on the source of the carcass meat and trim used to manufacture the ground beef, but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it is conducting an investigation that may lead to the recall of other products.

A Cargill spokeswoman said the problem was uncovered by a network of federal health officials at three sentinel sites across the country — including one in Calgary — that regularly purchases products from store shelves and tests them for pathogens that can cause food-borne illnesses.

“E. coli O157 was found in a routine, random sample of retail beef tested by Food-Net Canada from a Walmart in B.C.,” Connie Tamoto said.

“This beef was packaged at our Calgary case-ready facility on Nov. 19 and 20.” With files from The Canadian Press