It’s now a waiting game for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as they have suspended their inspection process at the XL Foods plant in Brooks.

The delay comes as the food company has temporarily laid off 2,000 workers in the wake of the beef recall.

Guy Gravelle with the CFIA said with no workers on the job, there the agency had no choice but to leave.

“The objective for us on Thursday was to allow the company to begin procession their 5,100+ carcases, allow us to assess them and ensure that everything is going according to food safety guidelines,” he said.  “At this stage the assessment has not been complete so I can’t speculate on how long that would take.”

The plant has been idle since late September while the CFIA and the company deal with E. Coli contamination that has made over a dozen people ill across the county.

The recall of contaminated products lists well over 2,000 products world wide.