Obviously not on supermarket shelves. Everyone has an opinion on this, and for what it’s worth, here is mine. There has a been major recalls from beef produced from the XL Foods plant here in Alberta. Well, it hasn’t affected me. That’s because for at least a few years now, I have chosen to only consume naturally raised or organic beef. Just making this choice does not guarantee that it will be free of things such as E coli. But at least it is butchered locally and processed at different locations. I choose naturally raised or organic beef because it is free of antibiotics and hormones. I also like to eat locally.
From what I have read, E coli is more likely in a large facility where all it takes is the processing of one animal to cross contaminate everything else. At least in smaller facilities, if this were to happen it would not cause such far ranging consequences. I also read that provincially run abattoirs have different standards compared to federal ones. Such as if an animal was brought in by a farmer for their family consumption, it does not need to be inspected. Interesting how the system works.
On a larger scale, makes me wonder about the other large processing facility in Alberta, Cargill, which has ramped up their production because XL is closed.
I do wonder about food safety in this country…
