The U.S. Department of Agriculture is banning imports of beef from the XL Foods plant in Alberta after an E. coli scare.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirms American inspectors intercepted a number of shipments of contaminated ground beef since the beginning of the month.
The CFIA has now issued seven alerts related to the recall.
On Sept 16, the CFIA ordered the voluntarily recall from the Brooks, Alta., plant, after they were alerted to the problem by officials in the U.S.
Since then XL Foods has pulled more than 250 products from grocery stores chains and small shops across the country.
Related link: CFIA's List of Recalled Products
Today XL Foods released a statement about the CFIA’s report findings that included several deficiencies that could have lead to the E. Coli contamination.
The company implemented a response plan that has been accepted by the CFIA.
“XL Foods is committed to producing high quality beef products, and the safety of our consumers is our number one priority," the statement reads. "We will continue to act in their best interests throughout the completion of the recall and implementation of enhanced systems to ensure something like this never happens again.“
Bob Jackson, a longtime meat inspector and regional vice president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says the recall should have been initiated a lot sooner.
“It’s very disturbing that the product was still on shelves and still being sold in stores for that length of time before the recall was made public.,” he said.
"It’s not the first time and it is quite alarming, the fact that it was found by the United States.”