Donald’s Fine Foods, based in Richmond, B.C., is looking at developing the defunct XL foods beef plant in Moose Jaw into a sow processing facility. The company is conducting a feasibility study and gauging overall support from producers, the public, and government for creating a “technologically advanced sow processing facility serving Western Canadian hog producers,”… Read More
Tag: XL Foods
The XL Foods beef recall over E. coli contamination and its detection was one of the top ag news stories of 2012. It’s unfortunate that bad news is big news, and even worse that once the dust settles we discover that what happened was preventable even within the existing rules and regulations. An independent panel’s… Read More
Last week’s U.S. beef market opened with the same strong numbers leading up to American Thanksgiving. By the end of the week, numbers had, as expected, weakened somewhat, as supplies increase in the U.S. In Canada, the reverse is true for supplies — as the fall run ends, the basis is tightening. Canadian cattle producers… Read More
Never say never will be the theme of this story. In a deal announced today, JBS (a Brazilian Packer) will take over the operation of the plant with the option to purchase the plant, the feedyard and the farm. A source informed us that XL Foods employees were told at 5 PM. According to the… Read More
With an uncertain timeline for the re-opening of the packing plant, XL Foods had made the decision to temporarily layoff 2000 of its union workers. Up until this point XL Foods has been honoring the contract of the workers during the shut down but that has stopped immediately. This layoff does not mean that the… Read More
Assuming that CFIA will eventually allow the Lakeside plant to re-open, many producers and industry insiders are discussing some of the challenges that XL Foods faces in re-establishing sales with customers around Canada, the United States and the rest of the world. There are few that know more than Ted Haney about selling beef around… Read More
XL Foods has broken their silence by releasing a statement today to address the E. Coli outbreak at it’s Brooks, Alberta packing plant. For many inside the industry this statement is about 7-10 days too late but nevertheless they have finally spoken. SEE MORE COVERAGE OF THE XL FOODS E. COLI OUTBREAK For some communications experts we… Read More
The XL Foods situation has left beef producers and consumers wading in unknowns and unanswered questions. The question is, who will buy this beef? Many of us are wondering what really happened at the XL Foods plant, who is more to blame between XL Foods and CFIA and when the plant will re-open. There are… Read More
As reported last night, CFIA has decided to suspend the license of XL Foods temporarily until the plant implements some corrective actions to mitigate the risk of E. coli. According to the CFIA Statement: The detection of E. coli in slaughter facilities is not uncommon, and plants are expected to have adequate measures in place to monitor… Read More
According to the Calgary Herald, CFIA has suspended operations at the XL Foods Lakeside Cattle Slaughter Facility in Brooks. As we reported earlier this week, this story seems to be mushrooming as the days go by. CFIA has apparently given XL foods some corrective actions to implement before the plant will be re-opened. Corrective actions… Read More
It’s the beef recall nightmare that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. The XL Foods voluntary re-call regarding possible E. coli-contaminated ground beef began last week; the list of possibly contaminated products has been expanded seven times. To date, there have been no confirmed cases of human E. coli infections linked to this… Read More