A commercial kitchen company in Calgary pleaded guilty Thursday to four bylaw offences after a massive E. coli outbreak at daycares led to hundreds of children falling ill.
Fueling Minds Inc. was charged in relation to the eight-week outbreak that was declared in September 2023.
There were at least 448 infections, and 39 children and one adult were hospitalized due to severe illness. It was the largest known outbreak in children under five.
The pleas came at what had been scheduled as the first day of trial, and lawyers were to present a joint recommendation on sentencing.
Court heard prosecutors won’t proceed with charges against the company’s two directors, Faisal Alimohd and Anil Karim.
Health officials have said Fueling Minds provided breakfast, lunch and snacks to its own daycares that were affected by the outbreak and also several separate daycares.
A report last year said the outbreak was likely tied to meat loaf, but it couldn’t be determined for sure if the bacteria came from a contaminated ingredient or something else.
The province also launched a third-party review that made recommendations to better protect the health and safety of children in licensed child-care facilities.
An agreed statement of facts presented in court says that during the time Fueling Minds had agreements with four other daycares, from October 2022 and August 2023, it operated without a food services business licence.
In 2021, a company administrator sent an email to Alberta Health Services asking what steps were required to operate its food service but did not receive a response, says the court document.
“It has not been established that Fueling Minds’ failure to obtain a food services business licence caused the incident,” it says.
The document adds the convictions are the first for the company, and there is also an ongoing lawsuit in the case.
