Frozen Canadian beef burgers recalled for E. coli

Feb 21, 2013

Ontario meat plant linked in E. coli contamination investigation

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has launched an investigation into some frozen beef burgers sold by Canada Safeway Ltd. over concerns that some of the frozen product might be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

The investigation was launched after CFIA officials received notice that two people in Manitoba and Ontario became sick.

The recall includes the following frozen burgers: Gourmet Meat Shoppe Big & Juicy Burger, Gourmet Meat Shoppe Prime Rib Burger, and Butcher's Cut Pure Beef Patties sold in packages of 10, 20 and 40, with a best before date of (Aug. 14, 2013).

Officials say that the products were distributed in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.

The potential E. coli contamination has been linked back to Cardinal Meat Specialists, which operates in Brampton, Ontario. CFIA officials said on Wednesday that the investigation might expand since Cardinal Meat Specialists is one of the largest producers of frozen burger patties in Canada.

This case is thought to be unrelated to the XL Foods beef recall, which was the largest beef recall in Canadian history.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.