The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is alerting the public that, in conducting standard recall effectiveness checks of U.S. domestic establishments receiving beef from XL Foods, Inc. (Canadian Establishment 038), the Agency discovered that whole muscle beef cuts produced on the same production dates as beef subject to recall in Canada were being used to produce raw ground products. Specifically, FSIS discovered that sub-primal materials (i.e., beef short ribs) produced on the same production dates as beef subject to recall in Canada were being used by a U.S. facility to manufacture other products and that the beef short ribs were being trimmed in order for the trim to be used to make ground beef.

FSIS has reason to believe, based on information provided by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), that beef from cattle slaughtered during the period associated with the recall was produced under insanitary conditions that resulted in a high event period (a period when the trim from carcasses exhibited an unusually high frequency of positive findings for the possible presence of E. coli O157:H7). Therefore, all products that are non-intact, such as trim and ground beef subject to the recall, as well as all cuts of beef that will be processed into non-intact product, are considered adulterated.
Because FSIS now has evidence gathered through its effectiveness checks that whole muscle cuts were being used to produce ground beef, the Agency is using this public health alert to make the public aware that product from these cuts are also are considered adulterated unless they receive a full lethality treatment capable of eliminating E. coli O157:H7 that may be present.