CALGARY- The XL Foods beef recall has gone from bad to worse, with new allegations of contamination and yet another case of E. coli.
There are now six confirmed cases connected to beef from XL Foods. Five are in Alberta, and the latest broke out in Newfoundland.
Workers at the plant in Brooks, Alta. told Global News that one of the contamination sources is due to unsanitary conditions for employees.
“If [workers] have to go to the washroom and human waste with toilets overflowed, they’ll just walk through it,” said one worker, who wished to remain anonymous. “[There are] infestations of cockroaches, this is not a clean plant.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said it will investigate the allegation, but so far they have not found any evidence of it.
“Nothing of that has been noted to date in terms of those observations made by the XL plant employees,” said Pierre Lemieux, secretary to the agriculture minister.
Meantime, the federal government cannot say when the plant will reopen.
“The plant must prove to CFIA that their operations are safe,” Lemieux told Global News. “CFIA will absolutely not allow the reopening of that plant until things are safe, no matter how long that takes.”
During a news conference on Friday, the CFIA said officials are visiting retailers around the country trying to protect consumers.
“The CFIA needs to be sure that it has the right products identified and all products identified. This can be a time consuming process,” Dr. Harpreet Kochhar said.
He added that recall expansions are “common” as more information on retailers and distributers becomes available.
The CFIA says XL Foods had a plan in dealing with E. coli but the plant neither followed nor updated these safety measures.
CFIA officials said they asked for information from XL Foods “from the very” start, via written letters on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7. They wanted information by Sept. 8, but information received was “not usable.”
Also on Friday, Siskinds LLP launched a class action regarding the recalls. They allege that XL Food Inc. negligently produced certain beef products and are seeking to recover on behalf of purchasers of those products and their family members.
Officials from XL Foods did not make themselves available for comment on Friday.
With files from Gary Bobrovitz
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