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XL Foods Inc. is a Canadian meat packing company. The company is a subsidiary of Nilsson Brothers Inc. based in Edmonton, Alberta. From 2009 until 2013, XL Foods' Lakeside Packers Division was located just west of Brooks, Alberta, in Newell County. This facility was the second largest beef-processing operation in Canada. [1] During this period the company was by far the largest employer in Brooks, employing more than 2,200 people in 2012. [2]
XL Foods grew from a collection of ranches, feedlots and feed mills into one of the foremost Canadian-owned and operated beef processors in Western Canada. Nilsson Bros. reached an agreement to purchase the core beef assets, along with the company name, on November 22, 1998. In 2009, XL Foods bought Lakeside Packers from its U.S. parent company Tyson Foods, [3] following a bitter strike at Lakeside that lasted through most of 2005 after the workers joined the United Food and Commercial Workers labour union.
XL Foods was temporarily closed on September 27, 2012, by order of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) due to Escherichia coli O157:H7 being discovered in processed meat originating from the plant. The plant was testing incorrectly for E. coli in meat, so the testing procedures were made more stringent. The plant was processing between 2000 and 5000 cattle per day, [4] [5] representing approximately one-third of Canada's 2012 beef slaughtering capacity. [6]
According to American regulators and the CFIA, testing practices in place at the plant were not stringent enough to protect consumers from the E. coli contamination. [7] The incident was also linked to increased production at the plant during the time when the E. coli was detected.
A total of 18 confirmed cases of infection with E. coli O157:H7 were reported during the subsequent outbreak linked to XL Foods. [8]
On October 18, 2012, it was announced that the XL Lakeside plant was to be taken over by JBS USA for 60 days with "an exclusive option to buy the Canadian and U.S. operations of XL Foods". [9]
With the XL Foods recall, some experts like Sylvain Charlebois claimed that the XL Foods incident is an example of how a dysfunctional food safety culture can affect an organization. [10]
The Brooks plant was sold to JBS Canada on January 14, 2013. [11]
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, plants, and animals (FPA) in Canada, thus enhancing the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy. The agency is governed by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister of Health.
Cargill, Inc. is an American privately held global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in terms of revenue. If it were a public company, it would rank, as of 2015, number 15 on the Fortune 500, behind McKesson and ahead of AT&T. Cargill has frequently been the subject of criticism related to the environment, human rights, finance, and other ethical considerations.
There are different systems of feeding cattle in animal husbandry. For pastured animals, grass is usually the forage that composes the majority of their diet. Cattle reared in feedlots are fed hay supplemented with grain, soy and other ingredients to increase the energy density of the feed. The debate is whether cattle should be raised on fodder primarily composed of grass or a concentrate. The issue is complicated by the political interests and confusion between labels such as "free range", "organic", or "natural". Cattle raised on a primarily foraged diet are termed grass-fed or pasture-raised; for example meat or milk may be called grass-fed beef or pasture-raised dairy. The term "pasture-raised" can lead to confusion with the term "free range", which does not describe exactly what the animals eat.
Brooks is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by the County of Newell. It is located on Highway 1 and the Canadian Pacific Railway, approximately 186 km (116 mi) southeast of Calgary, and 110 km (68 mi) northwest of Medicine Hat. The city has an elevation of 760 m (2,490 ft).
The meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally not included. This greater part of the entire meat industry is primarily focused on producing meat for human consumption, but it also yields a variety of by-products including hides, feathers, dried blood, and, through the process of rendering, fat such as tallow and protein meals such as meat & bone meal.
Lakeside Packers is a beef producer based in Brooks, Alberta. It is owned by JBS Canada, a subsidiary of JBS S.A., a Brazilian protein company.
Gerry Ritz is a former Canadian politician. He served as member of the House of Commons of Canada for Battlefords—Lloydminster from 1997 until his resignation in 2017. He served as Canada's Agriculture minister from 2007 through 2015 under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a Canadian consumer packaged meats company. Its head office is in Mississauga, Ontario.
JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is an American food processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian company JBS S.A.. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company.
The American Meat Institute (AMI) was the oldest and largest trade association representing the U.S. meat and poultry industry. In 2015, it was merged into the North American Meat Institute (NAMI).
The Canadian Meat Council is Canada's national trade association for the federally inspected meat packers and processors. It is an industry trade group associated with the meat packing industry. Federally inspected plants account for over 90% of all the meat processed in Canada.
Cargill Meat Solutions is a subsidiary of the Minneapolis-based multinational agribusiness giant Cargill Inc, that comprises Cargill's North American beef, turkey, food service and food distribution businesses. Cargill Meat Solutions' corporate office is located in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Jody Horner is the division's president.
Topps Meat Company was a privately owned family company founded in 1940 by Benjamin Sachs in Manhattan, New York. The company later relocated to Elizabeth, New Jersey. The company produced and distributed frozen ground beef patties and other meat products processed at its 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) plant in Elizabeth and posted about $8.8 million a year in sales, according to information reported by Dun & Bradstreet. In 2003, the company was purchased by Strategic Investment and Holdings, an investment firm based in Buffalo, New York and by 2007 it was "one of the country’s largest manufacturers of frozen hamburgers." In 2007 the company ceased operations following Escherichia coli O157:H7 contamination of products and the ensuing recall.
JBS S.A. is a Brazilian company that is the largest meat processing company in the world, producing factory processed beef, chicken and pork, and also selling by-products from the processing of these meats. It is headquartered in São Paulo. It was founded in 1953 in Anápolis, Goiás. As of 2017, the company had 150 industrial plants around the world. J&F Investimentos is a 42% indirect shareholder in JBS S.A., which is listed on American stock markets as JBSAY. J&F Investimentos is wholly owned by Joesley Batista and Wesley Batista. As of May 2017, JBS S.A. remains the world's biggest butcher.
Jason Hale is a Canadian former politician who was an elected member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the electoral district of Strathmore-Brooks.
Brooks – The City of 100 Hellos is a 2011 Canadian television documentary film.
The meat industry has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Outbreaks of the virus have taken place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected dozens of plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posed a significant threat to the meat supply in the United States. By April 27, there were at least 115 facilities with cases across 23 states, and at least 4,913 workers diagnosed positive with COVID-19, or approximately 3 percent of the workforce, with 20 deaths reported. By May 5, over 10,000 meatpacking plant workers in 29 states and working at 170 plants had tested positive for the coronavirus. At least 45 of those meat industry workers had died. As of May 20, at least 15,300 workers have been infected with COVID-19 at 192 different meatpacking plants in the United States, based on ongoing reporting by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and USA Today. At least 63 of those workers have died from the disease.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, outbreaks of the virus took place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected multiple plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posing a threat to the food supply in Canada.
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