Calgary company at centre of daycare E. coli outbreak pleads guilty to bylaw offences | CBC News (2025)

Meghan Grant · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 24, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 24

The Calgary company at the centre of an E. coli outbreak at severaldaycaresacross the citypleaded guilty to bylaw offences and the prosecutor for the city indicated charges against the corporation's directors willbe dropped.

Hundreds of children fellill in September 2023 with dozens hospitalized in an outbreak that the City of Calgarysaid was traced toFueling Minds Inc., a catering company that provided meals and snacks to Calgary daycares.

Fueling Minds and its two directors, Faisal Alimohd and Anil Karim, werecharged with operating without a proper business licence in September 2023 following the outbreak that began earlier thatmonth andlastedeight weeks.

On Thursday, the corporation pleaded guilty, admitting it did not have a food services business licence at the time of the outbreak.

$10,000 fine imposed

City of Calgary prosecutor Ed Ring and Fueling Minds' lawyerSteve Major, asked the judge to impose a fine of $10,000 as part of a joint sentencing recommendation.

Justice of the PeaceMathieu St-Germainsaid he would return a decision next month.

• Meatloaf likely source of Calgary daycare E. coli outbreak as shared kitchen charged

Ring told St-Germainthat at the conclusion of the proceedings, he plansinvite dismissal of the remaining charges against the two directors.

Court heard that in June 2021, a Fueling Minds administrator inquired with Alberta Health Services via email, asking what further steps were required for approval to operate their food service business.

AHS never responded.

'We take this seriously'

In reading from an agreed statement of facts, Ring told the court that the city had not established that Fueling Minds'failure to obtain a proper licence caused the E. coli incident, and referenced an ongoing lawsuit against the company, filed by the parents of the children who fell ill.

In his sentencing submissions, Major told the court that Fueling Minds had a kitchen licence but not acatering licence, "an administrative box that was not checked."

When given the chance to address the court,Faisal Alimohd said the business has since closed down.

"We take this seriously," he said. "I am sorry that our business did not obtain a catering licence.… I wish we would have had this."

39 children hospitalized

In September 2023, the City of Calgary said it had traced the outbreakto the catering company that prepared food for its daycares, Fueling Brains, as well as other child-care businesses in the city.

There were at least 448 E. coli cases connected to the outbreak, which resulted in 39 children and one adult being hospitalized.

Of the most severe cases, 23 patients were diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a condition that can lead to life-threatening kidney failure.

• Cockroaches, previous violations at kitchen used by Calgary daycares as E. coli outbreak toll climbs to 264

A report released by Alberta Health Servicesfound the E. colilikely came from a beef meatloafserved from the Fueling Minds central kitchen on Aug. 29, 2023.

The outbreak was the largest of its kind in Alberta's history and led to a third party review.

The Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Review Panelreleased12 recommendations on preventing similar outbreaks in the future.

Recommendations included increasing the frequency of inspections at child-care facilities, mandatory training programs for food workers and improving response times in facilities where food safety concerns are raised.

In the wake of the outbreak, several lawsuits were filed against the company, including a proposed class-action suit that is still before the courts.

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