Federal food inspectors have allowed a beef slaughter and cutting plant in Ontario’s Niagara region to resume operating after a temporary suspension.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had pulled the federal operating license for the St. Ann’s Foods plant in February, saying the company had “failed to correct deficiencies in hygienic practices.”
CFIA announced this week that the plant at St. Anns, southwest of St. Catharines in the Niagara regional municipality, could resume operating effective last Friday (April 26) under “intensified” agency inspection.
The St. Ann’s plant was approved to export meat to the U.S., Vietnam, Hong Kong and Chile. It’s licensed for slaughter, boning and cutting of cattle, sheep and goats and to provide kosher and halal slaughter.
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The company had presented an “acceptable action plan… that would have corrected these deficiencies,” CFIA said in February.
However, CFIA said it had to suspend the plant’s license when the company was “unable to demonstrate consistent or full implementation of the corrective measures within the required time frame.”
No food recalls or reported illnesses were connected to this suspension, the agency said.
