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 Canadian Food Inspection Agency Issues Ground Beef E. coli warning
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued an food advisory warning. ground beef sold at Canadian Safeway and some independents may be contaminated with a potentially deadly strain of E. coli bacteria.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has issued a statement that warns people to not eat a number of fresh and frozen ground beef products. The products in question are sold at Canada Safeway stores and independent grocery store. The products, in question, may be contaminated by a potentially deadly strain of E. coli bacteria.
To date there have been five reports of illness that is linked to the products and the concern is that the culprit is O157:H7 strain.
The following products are affected by the alert:
• Fresh ground beef (lean, regular, extra lean and market trim) sold at Safeway and some independent grocery stores in British Columbia and Alberta between May 24 and June 5.
These products bear "best before" dates from May 25 to June 6 inclusively. Consumers who have purchased fresh ground beef products from independent stores during the time periods described above and are unsure whether they have an affected product are advised to contact the retail store where they were purchased.
• Butcher’s Cut frozen ground beef patties in the 1.13-kg size. The affected patties, bearing UPC 58200 21604 and a Julian code date of 143, were sold on and after May 24, 2007, at Safeway stores in Western Canada and in Ontario, west of Thunder Bay.
• Sunny Dawn frozen ground beef patties. The affected patties, bearing the Julian date 143-07, were sold on or after May 24, 2007 at some independent grocery stores in Western Canada, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and in Ontario west of Thunder Bay.
There may be no outward signs (smell, appearance) that the meat is infected with E. Coli. CFIA is informing the public that eating food that is contaminated with this bacteria may may cause death or serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses, such as permanent kidney damage.
Some symptoms, that may appear if you have eaten contaminated beef, are severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. In some cases people may have seizures or strokes and others may require blood transfusions and kidney dialysis.
The food is being voluntarily recalled by Canada Safeway and CFIA is monitoring the recall.
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It's always something! It doesn't say whether they had an idea where...how...the meat was contaminated. Very scary!
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Posted Jul 8, 2007 by MR |
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Meat in general is not a really good diet. You never know what type of biological chemicals are in the meet that can harm you.
great articale!
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MR
Meat in general is not a really good diet. You never know what type of biological chemicals are in the meet that can harm you.
You are so very right! Not that I could be 100% vegetarian, but I do limit the amount of meat I eat...mostly because I don't like eating a lot of meat overall. -
Even vegetables can be contaminated with E. coli.
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permafrog...I don't know that there is any foods that can't be contaminated with e coli...would this be correct?
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@ Debra Myers (skyangel)
permafrog...I don't know that there is any foods that can't be contaminated with e coli...would this be correct?
I think that is a safe bet. -
@ Debra Myers (skyangel)
permafrog...I don't know that there is any foods that can't be contaminated with e coli...would this be correct?
*every* food can be contaminated. All you need is a worker who does not properly wash his hands after going to the washroom, or after straightening out his/her underwear. The same goes for after-production contamination. All you need is that nice little old lady/man squeezing a few tomatoes to see if they are ripe. If she/he didn't wash her/his hands after going to the washroom, you have the same danger. Oh, and let's not forget organic produce that is virtually always fed with manure, the preferred medium of E. coli. -
Good points, Bart...some that I had not even thought of! Pretty scary...to think that we are that vulnerable.
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E. coli can as i said infect any food and organic food is not always grown in manure.
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E. coli can as i said infect any food and the organic food does not guarantee that the food is not infected by E. coli, it means no unnatural and unnecessary chemical are used.
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@ Debra Myers (skyangel)
Good points, Bart...some that I had not even thought of! Pretty scary...to think that we are that vulnerable.
We are not all that vulnerable, Skyangel. After all, fear of "contaminated" food is largely irrational. Since humans literally are E. Coli production lines, they can withstand them easily. It is only when uncommon strands come into play that we can be hurt. Even with the most deadly of strains, most people don't have symptoms, only a minority do, and that is usually limited to some mild cases of diarrhoea. That is annoying, but hardly worth complaining about. A small minority however, will be hit harder. Some might even die. These are invariably people with very weakened immune systems. -
I wasn't implying that I would let that kind of fear upset me or rule me...I understand that we are faced with all kinds of bacteria every day. I guess I meant it in a mental way...that it could become an irrational fear if we allow it.
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There is the economic impact caused by food recalls and the possibility of rising prices as the manufacturers try to recoup.
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That always seems to be a given though, when food recalls happen. This is what puzzles me, because it seems like more efforts would be made to make sure that what products were headed out to the stores are safe for consumption. A daunting task, I know...but that's what I thought Quality inspectors were for.
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Last year the incidence of E. coli rose, mostly due to contamination of vegetable crops. I wonder if anyone has calculated the cost to the consumer of all this, which may be the real issue here.
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permafrog
Last year the incidence of E. coli rose, mostly due to contamination of vegetable crops. I wonder if anyone has calculated the cost to the consumer of all this, which may be the real issue here.
And that may be real issue! What could be done to prevent this though? If more inspectors were hired, more testing done...that would up the food prices just as much. -
@ Debra Myers (skyangel)
What could be done to prevent this though? If more inspectors were hired, more testing done...that would up the food prices just as much.
Not much can be done. Testing is not going to help in any possible way. The trouble is that the vast majority of foods infected by E. Coli are fresh foods. They usually must be consumed before the results of any tests can be in.
There is a reason why governments traditionally tried to warn people off eating "fresh" foods and this is it.
The costs to eliminate E.coli from the food chain would be prohibitive, and the whole process would be so involved that even then there would be no guarantee. The pollution caused by all this would be mind-boggling.
So, in short, it is a trade-off. The best bet for healthful, non-infected produce are cans. They don't always taste very good, and they have disadvantages. The next best bet is frozen produce. And the least best bet is "fresh". The faster people will understand that it is their food choice (fresh is becoming more and more popular) that is directly responsible for the (slightly, let's not exaggerate here) increased infection rates, the better it is. -
I will stick with fresh, local and organic when I can although in winter frozen is what is available so I will use that as well. go fresh, go local. The safest food is food that you grow naturally.
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@ Bob Ewing
The safest food is food that you grow naturally.
Sorry to burst the bubble, but it is not. If that were the case, the generations before us, would have had less food-borne illnesses than we have, which is not the case. Not by a long shot. It is precisely because of the countless deaths caused by food that our system has become as sanitized as it is. -
I love fresh foods...thus I take my chances too. Canned fods have either too much sodium or too much sugar which is a no-no having diabetes. Frozen foods I can handle though.
As far as there not being much that can be done to prevent this in foods brought to market...I pretty much knew the answer because we've discussed this on another thread.
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sorry to burst your bubble and that is a very silly phrase BTW, A localized food system can be safe and provide natural healthy food for all, Your time travelling ignores the knowledge that many growers have gained over the years that resolve many of the past problems.
Personal hygiene, garbage in the streets, foul air caused many of the problems then as they do now but a well designed and localized food system can rectify that, help build a strong economy and reduce the harm that our industrial agricultural system is doing and has done to the environment.
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@ Debra Myers (skyangel)
I love fresh foods...thus I take my chances too. Canned fods have either too much sodium or too much sugar which is a no-no having diabetes. Frozen foods I can handle though.
As far as there not being much that can be done to prevent this in foods brought to market...I pretty much knew the answer because we've discussed this on another thread.
I am with you, Skyangel. If choosing carefully, salt and sugar can be avoided in canned foods, but only up to a point. For example, I always buy unsalted tomato juice. I used to hate canned tomato juice with a passion. When I discovered the unsalted variety, I started to like it better, although I still add some lemon juice to it. Of course, I far prefer tomato juice from fresh tomatoes, but this can become ridiculously expensive.
I think that frozen foods are our best bet. They are reasonably safe, reasonably priced and they have a reasonably good taste while combining ease of use and practicality. -
Our best bet is an intensive urban agriculture system.
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Bart...I love tomato juice, especially V8, but Wow! The sodium is horrific in it!
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I have also tried V8, Skyangel. I am always attracted to it, and once I try, I find it horrible. Since I like everything in it, I am blaming it on the salt.
I like to make juices myself. I don't use a juicer, but a mixer. That way, the juice is nice and thick. It is like the real vegetable/fruit, without having to bite and with more taste because the juice is no longer locked up in the cells.
The only problem I have, is that I am limited to the Dominions in College Park and Gould Street in Toronto, and while they always claim to be fresh obsessed, the only thing really fresh they have are the moulds on their vegetables and fruits. Especially their carrots can be truly revolting.
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Bart...that's pretty sad that the fresh foods available could be pets sooner than foods. Either their produce isn't selling fast enough, it's had to travel a long way to get to the stores or some other event is happening where the foods are actually beginning to decay in the display stands. Very sad. Especially for you.
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Indeed, Skyangel. What makes it worse, is that it is clearly store policy. The other store in the neighbourhood (Kitchen Table) is not nearly as bad. Unfortunately, because of the way I live my life (timing) I can nearly never go there.
A good way to see that it is indeed store policy, is by looking at clementines and strawberries. The top layer is invariably great looking and below that is the moulded layer. The carrots are horrible, with very rare exceptions. I love turnips, but who wants to buy soft turnips? What amazes me to no end is that they advertise with "Fresh obsessed". Indeed. Either they are referring to their fresh moulds or they mean that they are afraid to sell things that are fresh....
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Bart...Fresh obsessed with mold, is more like it! I feel truly bad for you!
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