A Quebec pork packer that pled guilty to 27 charges of federal meat inspection violations has been slapped with fines totalling $62,000.
Atrahan Transformation, a federally-inspected facility at Yamachiche, about 20 km west of Trois-Rivieres, pled guilty to the charges at a Court of Quebec hearing July 20, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a release Thursday.
The violations listed involved “failure to comply with the requirements of humane treatment and slaughter, improper operation of a bolt pistol, inadequate monitoring of carcasses and impeding the work of inspectors,” the CFIA said.
The violations, covered under the federal Meat Inspection Regulations, took place between October 2007 and May 2008, the agency said.
Atrahan, a family business founded by Achille Trahan in 1956, ships pork mainly to markets and further-processors in Eastern Canada, but says it also exports to nearly 50 countries including the U.S., Mexico, Korea and Japan.
The packer was named in 2003 and again in 2008 as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies in the annual program sponsored by Deloitte and the National Post.
