The recent XL beef recall has raised many questions about the safety of our food supply.
While E. coli outbreaks are not new, never before has an outbreak had such geographic and economic ramifications. The temporary closure of XL Foods, which processes roughly one third of Canada’s beef, resulted in temporary layoffs of 2,000 workers, reduced the price of beef for cattle ranchers by about 10 cents a kilogram and infected people all across the country and even internationally. All of this has brought into question our dependence on centralized, industrial-scale slaughterhouses.
Ironically, our use of “mega slaughterhouses” started as a safety measure. In 2004, after mad cow disease almost devastated the beef industry, stringent new meat inspection regulations were introduced in BC requiring all meat for human consumption to pass through a licensed, inspected slaughterhouse.
This process was expensive and many small operators were unable to conform, putting them out of business and weakening our regional food production. The idea was that large commercial plants would be safer because they would be monitored more closely.
A plant like XL has 46 inspectors on-site and can sell their products nationally, whereas a small provincially-regulated slaughterhouse is licensed, but lacks full-time inspectors and can only sell their products within B.C. So today, most friendly cows raised in B.C. are sold to a feedlot and trucked to one of three industrial slaughter and processing plants in Canada.
In 2010, B.C. amended its meat inspection regulations and is currently reviewing the system that may facilitate more regional “farm-gate” operations in our province.
This will not eliminate the risk of E. coli, but will minimize the impact of a contamination event.
What is important to remember is that most harmful bacteria in food will be killed if cooked properly. The best way to reduce your risk of food contamination is to follow basic food safety tips:
• Do not keep food in the “Danger Zone” (between 4 C and 60 C) for more than two hours.
• Cook food to a safe internal temperature. (160 F or 71 C for ground beef)
• Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing or eating food.
• Thaw meat in the refrigerator
Raw meat juice can carry bacteria.
• Keep raw food separate from other food while shopping, and while storing, preparing and serving foods.
For more food safe tips, see http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/consumer-centre/food-safety-tips.
