Forty meat plant inspectors in Canada — 21 of them in Alberta — have contracted COVID-19, according to their union, prompting a senator to call for workers and the integrity of the food safety system to be protected.
Forty meat plant inspectors in Canada — 21 of them in Alberta — have contracted COVID-19, according to their union, prompting a senator to call for workers and the integrity of the food safety system to be protected.
Among the infected are 18 of the 37 inspectors at Cargill meat plant near High River, south of Calgary. That plant is the site of the largest single outbreak in Canada.
The numbers were first tweeted by Sen. Paula Simons on Wednesday. The Agriculture Union, which represents some 1,000 inspectors who work for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) at slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, later confirmed them with CBC News.
“Cattlemen and feed lot operators face huge problems, if packing plants can’t operate. I get that,” Simons, who is from Edmonton, wrote on Twitter.
“But we need to be certain that the beef we send to the tables of Canadians is safe and properly inspected, by healthy, experienced inspectors