Federal food agency didn’t spot safety risks
XL foods failed to make required changes
OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency admitted Friday it failed to notice during routine inspections that the plant at the centre of Canada’s largest-ever beef recall had not properly implemented its own plan to control food safety risks.
The admission came the same day public health authorities announced a case of illness in Newfoundland linked to tainted meat from the plant. This is the first time a case outside of Alberta has been linked directly to the specific strain of E. coli O157 in meat produced by the XL Foods Inc. plant in Brooks, Alta. The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control said it is also awaiting the results of genetic testing on a single case that might confirm a link to meat from the Brooks facility.
The CFIA made public Friday a summary of what are called “Corrective Action Requests” given to the company as a result of an indepth review of the XL Foods Inc. plant. The review was triggered by a positive E. coli finding on beef trimmings from the slaughterhouse during routing testing on Sept. 4.
While CFIA said it had verified the company’s plan to control risks, the plan, known as a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), “was not being fully implemented or regularly updated,” the agency said. In 2005, HACCP became mandatory in all federally registered meat plants in Canada and is considered the cornerstone of a foodsafety system.
This fundamental gap meant the plant wasn’t managing properly its E. coli risks, CFIA said, citing “inconsistent trend analysis on positive samples and no process to include test results from client establishments.”
Basic sanitation and maintenance problems were also found during the in-depth probe, the summary states. For example, two of 11 water nozzles were clogged in the primary carcass wash area, refrigeration had not been cleaned as frequently as specified, sanitizer was dripping from overhead structures onto products below and the evisceration table thermometer was not functioning properly.
Some employees were not wearing beard nets and “employees sorting beef trim touched contaminated product without following appropriate washing and sanitizing procedures.”
The summary also included a defence as to why government inspectors stationed at plant did not find these problems during routine examination. Forty government inspectors and six veterinarians are stationed full-time at the plant, divided into two groups to cover two production shifts. Up to 4,000 cattle were slaughtered every day.
“In general, routine day-to-day inspections focus on key hazard control points where food risks are the greatest. Less critical aspects of production and facility maintenance are assessed, but less frequently,” CFIA said.
During the course of CFIA’s recent in-depth probe, the agency uncovered problems with the company’s E. coli controls on five production days dating back to Aug. 24.
About 800 products from the plant have been recalled in Canada since Sept. 16. There are five confirmed cases of human illness linked to the tainted meat from the plant, including the Newfoundland one.
The person in Newfoundland has recovered, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement, declining to give other details including whether the person had been hospitalized. This strain of E. coli can be fatal.