Affected meat products have been removed from shelves at the local grocery stores in Grand Forks after a large meat recall by XL Foods in September.
According to Dave Wilkes, senior vice-president for the Grocery Division of the Retail Council of Canada, a trade association representing Extra Foods, all meat products have been removed from shelves.
“What we’ve really seen was that when the recall was announced, our members’ first and foremost priority was to remove the affected products from the shelves,” he said. “That was done very expeditiously within a matter of hours.”
Julie Dickson, director of communications for the Overwaitea Food Group, pointed out that they were notified of the contamination on Sept. 28 and pulled the product immediately.
“We have not been notified by the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) of any illnesses that have been tied to our products,” she noted in an email. “Though we do not buy ground beef from XL Foods, and have not for quite some time, our third party beef supplier does procure certain beef products from XL Foods that are now affected by the CFIA’s expanded recall.”
Dickson added that this was a precautionary measure and a voluntary removal of all potentially impacted products.
“We’ll be replacing removed product with unaffected supply over the next few days,” she said. “If you’ve purchased any of these potentially affected items from any of our stores please feel free to return them to us for a full refund.”
Wilkes pointed out that despite the recall, sales have not been affected by the contamination and recall.
“What we’ve seen in the stores is that the impact really has been minimal and that consumers are continuing to purchase beef,” he said.
Buy-Low Foods’ headquarters had not responded as of press time. For more information on the food recall, visit www.inspection.gc.ca.
