Retailers and distributors should return any remaining product, the company said. The ground beef was also distributed to wholesale customers in the United States and government officials have been notified. The amount of ground beef distributed in Canada was 52,287 kilograms and 92,831 kilograms in the U.S., said Gary Mickelson, spokesman for IBP Inc., owner of the Lakeside plant in Brooks. He said while the company, which is the largest producer of fresh beef and pork in North America, spends millions of dollars on technology to try to prevent the deadly bacteria from getting into the product, there are no guarantees that raw hamburger is free of the strain. No meat producer can guarantee their product is free of this bacteria absent irradiation.
Irradiation is a process which uses a short microwave blast to kill harmful bacteria.
All ground beef products must be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 71 C or 160 F to be safe. A number of people got sick in Saskatchewan last month from hamburger believed to be produced at Lakeside, the federal agency said. We don't have the specific lab report that they wanted to see. However we've looked at it, there's been a risk assessment done . . We have enough evidence.