A recall of hamburger that caused a grocery chain to destroy thousands of kilograms of meat could be expanded if a processing plant is forced to bring back a whole day's work for inspection.

Inspectors found a 900-kilogram batch of ground beef handled in Moose Jaw, Sask., and sent to Safeway grocery stores was tainted by a deadly strain of E. coli bacteria. A recall was issued Saturday.

Canada Safeway says it will destroy 45,000 kilograms of beef that was mixed with the shipment from XL Foods.

Several shipments of ground beef have been recalled across the country in the last week.
Several shipments of ground beef have been recalled across the country in the last week.

XL hasn't recalled meat it shipped to other customers, but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) may expand the recall to include all the meat the plant processed on June 22.

The tainted beef was recalled just a day after an Alberta plant issued a warning that 77,000 kilograms of ground beef was contaminated by the same E. coli strain that killed at least seven and made hundreds sick when it got into the water supply in Walkerton, Ont.

Jean Kamanzi
Jean Kamanzi

It's believed that hamburger was shipped to wholesalers and retailers in Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Kansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Safeway officials say 51 cases of the ground beef were sent to stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and western Ontario. But they never made it to store shelves.

Despite the warnings, CFIA officials say the amount of contamination is probably small. The agency emphasized on the weekend that there had been no reports of sickness, and it considered the probability of widespread illness to be low.

"If the levels were very high, probably now we would be seeing an outbreak going on in the country," said Jean Kamanzi of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Since the shelf life of ground beef is short, health officials believe most of the meat has already been cooked and eaten.

People who purchased the hamburger in early June have been advised to throw it away, even if it doesn't look or smell bad.

But to prevent panic, the agency pointed out that the bacteria poses no health risk if the meat is properly prepared. The CFIA said it's still investigating what happened.

Meat can get tainted with E. coli when cows are slaughtered at processing plants. During removal of the intestines, fecal matter may spill out and contaminate meat if proper procedures aren't followed.