The Canadian Press reports that three of six Quebecers hospitalized this month ate beef contaminated with E. coli that has been traced to an Alberta meat-packing company, a Quebec Agriculture Department official said Wednesday. The department traced the contaminated meat sold at a supermarket in St-Eustache, north of Montreal, to XL Meats.
The three cases from St-Eustache are related to the consumption of beef coming from XL Meats in Alberta. The other cases aren’t related.
From the article:
An elderly Quebec woman died after eating contaminated meat. However, her case and those of two other people who fell ill couldn’t be traced to any particular source, said Ramsay.
One of the six females between the ages of 14 and 82 ate the ground beef raw, another ate a burger cooked medium-rare. Cross-contamination may have been involved in the other cases.
The Quebec department had issued a recall of meat sold July 1-7 at a Metro supermarket.
A second unrelated recall from three other supermarkets north of Montreal and from a store in Churchill Falls, Labrador, was ordered after the meat tested positive for the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria. There were no reported illnesses associated with that recall.