The now-closed Rancher’s Beef Ltd. near Calgary, working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, has announced a recall of all beef distributed from its Balzac, Alta. plant between June 8 and Aug. 15 this year.
The recall is of all products distributed directly to the company’s corporate clients in Canada, including distributors, processors and “a small number of retail establishments,” CFIA said in a press release late Friday.
CFIA asked the company’s clients not to process or distribute any remaining product and to remove any affected processed raw product from the marketplace.
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The recall stems from a joint investigation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) into findings of E. coli O157:H7 in the U.S. this summer.
FSIS announced last week that Rancher’s Beef was the “likely source” of a unique genetic pattern of E. coli suspected in up to 40 cases of sickened consumers in eight states this summer.
A major E. coli-related beef recall by Topps Meat, a leading U.S. burger maker later found to have bought beef trim from Rancher’s Beef, led to Topps’ closure in October.
While CFIA is investigating 45 E. coli cases in five provinces this summer, including one death — and notes some of those cases appear to have genetic links to cases in the U.S. — it stressed in Friday’s release that its latest recall is a “precautionary measure” and there is no confirmed link to date between illness in Canada and product from Rancher’s Beef.
The Rancher’s Beef plant, which closed in mid-August, is in receivership and no longer operating. Remaining product in the Rancher’s Beef warehouse is under CFIA detention.
