An independent review finds a massive recall of contaminated beef could have been prevented.
Photo Credit: Jim Cole/Canadian Press

Investigation reveals “weak food safety” at meat plant

The largest beef recall in Canadian history could have been prevented according to an independent review of the incident at the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta last fall. 18 people were sickened by an outbreak of E-coli bacteria.

Neither staff nor federal inspectors at the plant took food safety seriously enough to prevent the crisis, according to the three-member panel.

null
An independent review found “a weak food-safety culture” at the XL plant in Books, Alberta. © CBC

It found that proper sampling, analysis and response could have detected the contamination earlier and prevented tainted shipments from ever leaving the plant.

30 new inspectors will be hired by the federal government in response to the report. 16-million dollars will be spent to set up inspection teams to do spot checks on all food plants across the country.

Categories: Health
Tags:

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.