uninspected meat

[blackjack]

...CHR names 5 places that bought uninspected meat...

CALGARY – Five city food outlets purchased uninspected meat from a man who butchered it in his garage, the Calgary Health Region says.
But all five told CHR inspectors that they believed they were buying beef from an approved, licensed business.
John Pelton, the CHR's director of environmental services, said the butcher used to have a licensed facility.
"He moved his operation to his private home and people, I guess, just found out that he had changed locations, so they continued to deal with him," Pelton said. "They honestly didn't have any reason to believe that the meat wasn't government-inspected."
The CHR said any meat in the five businesses that wasn't accompanied by a receipt from an approved supplier was removed from the premises.
These five businesses either purchased meat from or used the services of the illegal butcher:
Blue Lagoon Restaurant and Lounge, Marlborough Drive NE
Brothers Pizza and Donair, 17th Avenue SW
Express Donair Deli and Pastry, 52nd Avenue NW
Soby's Eatery, 1st Street SE
Western Style Chicken and Pizza, 8th Avenue SE
The CHR and Alberta Agriculture seized and destroyed about 2,000 kilograms of beef found in coolers and freezers at a home in the northeast last Thursday. Charges are pending under the Public Health Act.
The CHR said the butcher didn't have a permit.
Receipts found in the garage indicated that meat had been sold to a number of stores, the CHR said.
Alberta Agriculture had the butcher's home under surveillance for about a month, but doesn't know how long he was in business.

[rkaiser]

Somebody should tell these Media folks that unnspected beef is lethal.

You don't even have to eat the s*&^, you simply have to touch it and you die.

You gonna phone in blackjack, or should I.

[blackjack]

...found it kind of interesting...have a brother law that butchers for family and neighbours...he's had the gestapo after him to not go outside the boundary...lol...

[15444]

Gestapo...haha...too true.

[WoolyBear]

The honest truth about this story is that this "butcher" likely did better, and cleaner job of things because he was the "OWNER" and cared about his business. Can 't say the same for every soul on an assebly line, or the management big wigs that hide behind lawyers and all.

[WoolyBear]

WoolyBear, you are likely 100% correct, however there are regulations governing the sale of meat. Many folks have turned to selling meat from the farm since BSE, and have gone about it the right way.I have neighbours that have two animals slaughtered and inspected weekly and sell from home and also through truck load sales. Do they make as much profit as the fellow selling in Calgary without getting the meat inspected?. I doubt it, but they are playing by the rules and the consumers of their product have the assurance of knowing that they are purchasing inspected beef.
I wonder how much this little espisode will hurt the business of the restaurants in question ?

[rkaiser]

Do you guys think the restaurants were simply as uninformed as they say, or trying to make a quick buck from cheap meat? The report never implies anything but innocence on the part of the buyers.

[rkaiser]

It wouldn't make much sense for any restaurant anyone in the business of selling meat products to take a chance on purchasing uninspected meat. It does make one wonder about their purchasing practices though, if they buy from someone that is running his meat cutting business out of his garage !
Mind you, they likely had the product delivered and had no clue where it was processed.

[JD4ME]

The cases of E-coli before Christmas in Calagry were tentatively traced back to a few places, were these any of them?

[grassfarmer]

I wonder how hard some outlets look to their suppliers emrald?
A case I've mentioned here before from the UK involved some bright sparks renting an old warehouse in London. They got discards from meat and food processing companies - old/ off colour beef and poultry etc and then
"reprocessed" it before selling it on to wholesalers - some of whom supplied schools, hospitals, old folks homes. The premisis they used had pools of raw sewage and rats on the floor. Amazingly no one died or was taken ill - they were found because of a tax fiddle I think.
The part that made us mad was that one leading store that bought some of the "product" was one that gave us a really hard time compling with farm assurance standards before they would buy animals from us. It seems once again the poor dumb farmer must jump through hoops to stay in the industry but these retailers will drop their standards if the price is right.

This is not to say all meat processed outside a Government facility is dangerous - in many cases the opposite would be the case. Joel Salatin, the pasture guru, has fought USDA for 20 years over this one. He argues that he shoots and butchers his animal in the pasture and the beef is far safer than that from a mega kill plant - it's a cleaner environment outside and he takes a lot more care butchering given that his customers are his friends. How much incentive does a poorly paid immigrant worker have to take such care in a modern slaughter plant?