The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the license of Aliya's Foods, a ready-to-eat meat and poultry establishment, over non-compliance of meat inspection regulations. The action took effect on June 17.
The agency says Aliya's Foods, based in Edmonton, Alberta, failed to document and address product cooling issues during pre-shipment review, and failed to address allergen control issues, the Canadian Press reported.
No meat or poultry products have been recalled, but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency stated it will take action if any potentially contaminated product be identified.
The federal agency said Aliya's Foods will not be able to resume operations until the company has put in place corrective actions that are approved by the food inspection agency.
Noorudin Jiwani, president of Aliya's Foods, said the suspension is over record-keeping protocols only.
"The safety and quality of our products are at no risk to the consumers. Our records did not provide clear and concise definitive written evidence that product cooling time requirements were being met, although cooling of products within the plant is within required standards," Jiwani said in a news release.
"Instances where the records do not clearly indicate that the cooling procedure was met, food safety assessments (such as predictive modeling) show no growth for the time and temperature indicated, therefore there is no food safety concern present."
Jiwani also said that allergen tests are negative for allergen cross contamination, which he said indicates that controls in place are effective.
Since the suspension of production, the company has revised all records and implemented automated verification systems to provide a second check to assure that similar recording issues will not be a problem in the future, Jiwani said. He added that the staff is working closely with the federal agency and is working to improve written procedures.
