XL beef plant finally back to full production
New plant owners say return to capacity stalled without American access
Last September, the massive XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alta. was shut down after meat samples tested positive for E. coli.
Eighteen people were made sick and the subsequent recall grew to eight million pounds of beef, the largest such recall in Canadian history.
Nine months later, XL’s plant in Brooks has finally returned to full capacity under its new Brazilian owners, JBS.
“We didn’t have access to the U.S. market so we started off slow, and to be honest with you, beef demand for most of the spring was slower than what we would like to see, so we’ve just in the last month and-a-half gotten back up to full steam," Willie Van Solkema, president of JBS Canada, told Food Safety News.
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