Food safety officials review report on conditions inside Alberta beef plant

BROOKS, Alta. – Food safety officials are reviewing a report on a pre-inspection of the Alberta beef plant that is closed over E. coli concerns.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff went through the XL Foods plant in Brooks on Tuesday to see if the company has fixed problems that led to a massive international recall of beef products.

Agency spokeswoman Lisa Gauthier says the pre-inspection is just one step in a multi-step process of determining if the plant is safe to resume operating.

She says the CFIA didn’t receive the report until late Tuesday night and the agency will carefully review it before commenting.

The CFIA says it doesn’t know when that will happen, but it is likely to be later this week.

The owners of XL Foods say they have fixed all of the problems that were cited by the food safety agency and will work diligently to deal with any concerns.