Recalls keep expanding

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency continues to expand its recalls of beef products processed by New Food Classics’ plant at St. Catharines.

Today the CFIA added Giant Tiger retail outlets to the recall.

New Food Classics is, however, in bankruptcy and it’s not clear who is in charge of the recalls posted on the website of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

A spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency told me he doesn't know who is in charge - "a receiver or somebody else"- but that it doesn't matter because it's the retailers, such as Loblaws, that do the actual recalling by pulling the products off their shelves or, in this case, out of their store freezers.

Loblaws figures prominently in the recalls which include is private-label “no name” beef burgers and Club Pack beef steakettes made at CFIA Est. # 761, which is the New Food Classics plant at St. Catharines.

One illness has been reported. The issue is E.coli 0157:H7.

I'm wondering whether Galen Weston, owner of Loblaws, has his buyers putting so much pressure on suppliers that they cut corners on food safety and quality? This is the second private-label supplier to Loblaws to go under in less than a year. The other is Colonial Cookies in Cambridge which Loblaws ended up taking over.

If it was Loblaws' pricing pressure that did New Food Classics in, it would be an ironic spin on Weston's controversial speech a couple of months ago questioning food safety at farmers' markets.