Bad beef recall expanded

DEREK ABMA
Postmedia News

A month-old recall of beef products that might contain E. coli from a company that has gone into receivership and stopped operations was expanded to include two additional products on Saturday.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Ground Beef-Fresh in 9.07-kilogram packages are now part of the health alert. The federal agency said the fresh product initially was made for Five Guys Enterprises, which runs the Five Guys Burgers and Fries chain of restaurants. It added that frozen versions of this product were also sold.

This product has an establishment (EST) number of 761, indicating its was made at the Saskatoon plant of New Food Classics, which stopped operations shortly after the CFIA began investigating its products on Feb. 15.

The product code is 55362 on this beef.

Another product from the same company was added to the recall, Country Fried Style Breaded Beef Steak Chopped and Formed in 3.9-kilogram packages. These have a product code of 50988, and an EST number of 530, indicating the product came from another plant in St. Catharines, Ont.

“These products have been distributed nationally through restaurant and institutional establishments,” the CFIA said in a statement.

That adds to the list of more of 100 burger and beef products, under brands such as Best Value, PC, Calgary Stampede, Grillhouse, Keg and Licks, that are subject to this recall.

The Northwest Co., which sells Best Value Beef Burgers at Northern, Northmart and Giant Tiger West stories in Nunavut, northern Quebec, Labrador, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Northwest Territories, issued a warning of its own March 15.

The company said customers should not eat one- and two-kilogram packages of Best Value Beef Burgers that contain the following product codes: 72991, 82991, 53011, 63011, 73011, 83011.

And Northwest Co. has also taken all frozen Best Value Beef Burgers off its shelves, the company said, and has removed all other products made by the same manufacturer, New Food Classics.

There has been one reported illness associated with the product. The Northwest Co. said that illness was not associated with a product bought at one of their stores.

A warning issued last month cautioned people not to eat affected “Country Morning Beef Burgers” and “No Name Club Pack Beef Steakettes,” produced by the same company and also sold in Nunavut stores.

The CFIA said it is continuing its investigation, in which at least one person is known to have become ill from exposure to E. coli by eating a beef product from this company.

The CFIA says common symptoms of the potentially deadly bacteria include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (often bloody), vomiting, nausea, headache and little or no fever. Symptoms usually last five to 10 days, it says.

with files from Nunatsiaq News