The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor North of 53 Consumers Co-op is refunding customers who bought beef throughout most of September, a strictly precautionary measure amid the largest meat recall in Canadian history. General manager Tom Therien said the store did not receive products from the Alberta-distributed batch of beef found last week to be possibly contaminated by E. coli bacteria. Since the store had sold beef from the same plant, just not the contaminated batch, it opted to voluntarily pull those products from its shelves last Friday morning. 'We're erring on the side of caution,' said Therien. 'One good thing about the way the packing houses work now is, everything is trackable, right from the slaughterhouse all the way through the production line, so we knew exactly what we were looking for and in all fairness we had none of it here in Flin Flon. But again, it's a precautionary thing and you'd rather be safe than sorry.' Once the beef _ valued at at least $10,000 _ was removed, workers thoroughly sanitized all areas in the store in which meat is handled or stored. By last Saturday, a little over 24 hours later, new beef products were on sale. They were not subject ao any recall, voluntary or otherwise. The Co-op is now offering full refunds to customers who return beef products purchased throughout most of September, prior to last Saturday, Sept. 29. Therien said anyone who has already eaten beef purchased during that time should not panic, as if there were any health-related issues they would have surfaced by now. He said customers who choose to keep beef bought during that time should, as always, properly cook the meat before consumption. As of Tuesday, there were five reported cases of Canadians _ all in Alberta _ becoming ill due to E. coli suspected to originate with beef products from the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta. Therien said XL Foods knows which companies purchased the contaminated meat, and the Co-op chain was not among them. Customers with questions are asked to stop by or contact the Co-op. Meanwhile, at Eddie's Family Foods, staff said none of the beef products sold were affected by any recalls.
