Inspectors told to ignore contamination at XL Foods plant: report
CTV News is reporting that federal beef inspectors working at the XL Foods Alberta beef plant that was at the center of a massive recall were told to ignore contamination on carcasses being processed for sale in Canada. The directive that was imposed by the inspectors’ supervisors had been in place for over four years.
The 2008 memo written by a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) meat hygiene supervisor at the Brooks, Alta., plant, obtained by CTV, instructed CFIA inspectors stationed at one of the plant’s final inspection stops to give extra scrutiny to carcasses shipped to Japan, but to ignore visible fecal and intestinal contamination on meat for Canadians.