Beef scare keeping local butchers busy

This week's massive national beef recall has some people turning to their local butchers for help when it comes to finding safe meat to eat.

The E. coli recall started at an Alberta processing plant and now includes more than 1,500 products. It affects every province and territory.

All the worry about mass-produced beef has the phone ringing at Creative Meats in Warren.

"We've had so many calls that people want to come back to eating local," said Gilles Simon, one of the owners of the abattoir.

"That will be a big push for the next three weeks. Obviously it's because everyone is getting worried and they want to see what they will be putting on their plates."

Simon said he welcomes any move toward locally produced products, but noted food safety scares always affect everyone in the business.

"It always does. Everything that happens in the food industry hurts everything," he said.

"Obviously there will be protocols coming down to make sure it doesn't happen at smaller plants. That means probably more paper work and more protocols for us to do."

Simon said it will be difficult to keep up with demand while grocery store beef continues to be under scrutiny or pulled from the shelves.

He said the local farmers for whom he prepares meat have already pre-sold most of their animals.