If you bought ground beef from a small grocery store in Montreal’s north end recently, you’ll want to check your fridge (or freezer).
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec (MAPAQ) has issued a food safety notice for meat sold at Supermarché Épilys, located at 9204 boulevard Pie-IX in Montréal-Nord. The warning concerns lean ground beef sold at the store on July 7, 2025, which may be contaminated with a strain of E. coli that produces shiga toxins.
All package sizes are affected, and the product was sold refrigerated in plastic-wrapped styrofoam trays. Customers are being told not to consume the meat and either return it to the store or throw it out.
According to MAPAQ, no illnesses have been reported so far. However, eating food contaminated with shiga toxin-producing E. coli can cause serious health issues. Symptoms usually appear within 2 to 10 days and can include bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, and, in rare cases, life-threatening complications. Freezing food does not kill E. coli; it only slows down or pauses its growth.
However, properly cooking ground beef to a safe internal temperature can eliminate the bacteria.
The grocery store is voluntarily recalling the product as a precaution and is working with food safety inspectors from the City of Montreal and MAPAQ to notify the public.
Supermarché Épilys is far from the only place in the province to encounter issues with their meat. Other recent MAPAQ recalls include the undeclared presence of milk in meat tortellini sold by Pasta Pronto and the lack of information necessary for the safe consumption of pepperette sausage prepared and sold by Campbell Meats.
For more information and to sign up for recall alerts, you can visit MAPAQ’s website.
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