Canada Food inspection agency recall spreading to 135 ground beef products over E.coli fears.

Canada Food inspection agency recall spreading to 135 ground beef products over E.coli fears.(GN).Think twice before you barbecue that burger.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is urging the public to check all ground beef products in their freezers as a country-wide recall due to possible E.coli contamination affects a growing number of brands.
The agency says all the products - most of them frozen beef burgers - can be identified by the establishment number 761 and were produced between July 1, 2011 and Feb. 15, 2012."Our message to consumers is if you have these products in your freezers, do not consume them," CFIA food safety and recall specialist Garfield Balsom said Tuesday.
The recall, which was originally announced a number of weeks ago, now covers some 135 different beef products distributed under various brand names. They include President's Choice, Best Value, Calgary Stampede, Country Morning Gold, Exclusive Selections, Grillhouse, Irresistibles, Keg, Licks and Maple Lodge Farms.
The CFIA investigation into the tainted beef was sparked when a person in Alberta complained about contracting E.coli after consuming one of the affected products.
Balsom said the beef came from a Saskatoon hamburger plant operated by New Food Classics. The agency used the manufacturer's establishment number as an identifier because it was printed on all recalled products."The brand New Food Classics doesn't appear on a lot of products but the establishment number does," he said.
New Food Classics went into receivership last month about one week after the CFIA began its investigation into the E.coli complaint on Feb. 15, and a few days after the agency issued its first recall of hamburger products produced at the plant.
The closure of the company's plants in Saskatoon and St. Catharines, Ont., has thrown about 250 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union out of work.
In Nov. 5, 2010, the Ontario government gave New Food Classics a $1,000,000 grant to move a hamburger manufacturing facility from Calgary to St. Catharines to create jobs and bolster the economy.
Norm Neault, president of the UFCW local in Saskatoon, said New Food Classics had been in financial trouble, but had new investors lined up in February. He said it's not clear what role, if any, the E.coli investigation and the initial product recall had on the decision to shut the company down.
"I recall having someone tell me about it around (Feb.) 17 or 18, and my thought was 'if they are having a hard time finding a buyer before, what is it going to be like now?' It was like a perfect storm," he said."I can't say if it had any bearing on it, but it sure wasn't going to make it any easier."
The CFIA's investigation is ongoing and the agency will be adding products to a list on its website as they are identified.
"Our main focus is to first of all identify any product that may be of risk to consumers and then try to identify root cause so that we can identify the issue and make sure it doesn't re-occur," Balsom said.
"That investigation into the second phase is continuing at this point."
The products that may be contaminated were distributed nationally to retail stores, restaurants and institutions such as hospitals.The recalled products may have a best before date from Jan. 1, 2012 up to and including Feb. 15, 2013 and a production code with a format of 11 JL 01 up to and including 12 FE 15.
The CFIA is working with retailers and distributors to recall the identified products from the marketplace and is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.Some retailers, including Loblaw Companies, are offering refunds to customers who return the designated products, even if they don't have original receipts, to their stores.
A list of the recalled beef products can be found at the CFIA website.
The affected products can be identified by the Establishment number that appears on the packages, cartons or cases. The products made at this facility bear Establishment number (EST) 761.
The affected products involved in this recall may be identified by one of the following codes:

1. bearing a Best Before date from BB 2012 JA 01 up to and including to BB 2013 FE 15;
2. bearing a production code with a format of 11 JL 01 up to and including 12 FE 15;
3. bearing a 5 digit lot code where the last four digits are 1831 or greater.Read the full story here.