XL Foods is one of the biggest slaughtering house in Canada. It is located in Brooks, Alberta, and responsible for nearly 40% of Canada beef product supply. It also export meat products to the US, and abroad to places such as Hong Kong.

The CFIA (The Canadian Food Inspection Agency) corrective measures highlight some of the untidy practices of the meat processor. Among them:

Some rules and processes were not followed and/or enforced

• some employees were not wearing beard nets;
• employees were sorting trimmed beef and then touching contaminated meat without following the appropriate washing procedures
• refrigerators were not being cleaned according to the company’s own specifications;
• positive samples were inconsistently analyzed to detect trends;
• there were deficiencies in sampling techniques and there was insufficient record-keeping.
• the company’s own control plan was not fully implemented or regularly updated.

XL wasn’t ready to deal with contamination risk:

• There was a lack of written direction provided to employees about the steps to be followed after a positive test for E. coli;
•  XL’s response was very late

Some other things that were just wrong:

• a drain was emitting a foul odour;
• sanitizer was dripping onto product;
• the evisceration table thermometer was not functioning properly; 

Since its closure on September 26, XL has been working to restore production back. While XL and its many stakeholders (employees, suppliers, etc.) want to re-open the plant, the CFIA will want to be sure that not only is the plant clean and safe, but also that measures have been taken to make sure a similar issue won’t occur again.