A “weak attitude” to food safety procedures by both the staff at an Alberta beef-processing plant and federal food inspectors was behind a wide-spread E. coli outbreak that sickened 18 Canadians and led to the largest beef recall in the country’s history, according to a new report.
An independent review of the XL Foods Inc. plant, released Wednesday, found that the Brooks, Alta., facility was overwhelmed by the beef recall that took place last fall.
“We found a relaxed attitude towards applying mandatory procedures,” the report reads. “A shortcoming shared by both plant and CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) staff.
“We found one of the country's largest beef processors unprepared to handle what turned out to be the largest beef recall in Canadian history. As the company had never conducted any mock recalls on a scale that remotely mimicked a real event, XL Foods Inc. found itself overwhelmed with the recall that occurred.”
The three-member panel tasked with undertaking the review noted that there was a “weak food safety culture” at the plant.
Among the reports 30 recommendations were a greater emphasis on training CFIA inspection staff and faster approval for interventions.
In response to the report, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said the government plans to adapt all 30 recommendations and announced $16 million in new funding over the next three years to ensure better inspection of the country’s food-processing system.
Ritz said the CFIA will be filling 30 new positions to create inspection teams that will monitor in-house inspectors at food production plants.
The new Inspection Verification Teams will be in charge of overseeing the performance of the food inspection system and will conduct unannounced spot checks on plants across the country to ensure food safety rules and standards are consistently being enforced.
Ritz said the new teams will add a “layer of rigor” to the existing food inspection system.
“These are verification teams, these aren’t day-to-day inspectors on any particular plant,” Ritz told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday. “What they do is go in and make sure that the rigour is there on a day to day basis.”
Ritz described the Inspection Verification Teams as “the final backstop against that type of lethargy setting in.”
The changes come almost a year after E. coli-tainted beef was discovered at XL Foods, which forced the eventual month-long shut down of the Alberta plant.
XL later purchased by JBS South America, which Ritz noted as having “a much more vigorous food safety culture.”
Ritz also said meat packers would have to provide food distribution information in a standardized format, which he said would help speed up the agency's ability to trace food products during recall investigations.
As well, he announced plants that produce mechanically tenderized beef cuts, such as steaks or roasts, would have to label them as such and include cooking instructions so people know they must cook the meat beyond rare in the middle.
Speaking to Power Play on Wednesday, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Pierre Lemieux said despite last year’s massive beef recall, Canada continues to have one of the best food safety systems worldwide.
“At times there could be incidents that occur, but what we want to see is that we have a robust system,” Lemieux said. “If an incident should occur, (ensure) that it’s taken seriously and that remedial action is taken to improve the food safety system so that it doesn’t occur again.”
Lemieux pointed to the Safe Food for Canadians Act that was put in place last year that gives CFIA inspectors more authority in food processing plants.
