Canada's food-safety watchdog has restored the operating licence for a southern Alberta meat-packing plant at the centre of a massive recall of tainted beef.
   
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it has lifted its suspension of the licence for the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alta.

The agency says the plant will be allowed to ``progressively resume'' slaughter and meat-processing operations.
   
It says those operations will proceed under enhanced surveillance by food-safety officials and increased testing protocols.
   
The agency says additional inspectors will stay at the plant to monitor procedures and ensure strengthened food safety controls are being integrated into daily plant practices.
   
The agency said last week that samples from meat processed as part of the inspection had come back free of E. coli.
   
The XL Foods plant has been closed since Sept. 27, the epicentre of an extensive beef recall fuelled by E. coli contamination that has rocked the industry as well as the agency, which is overseen by the federal government.
   
Millions of kilograms of meat have been returned to the plant from dozens of retailers across Canada and the United States, and the recalled beef is being dumped at a landfill.
   
What's more, the plant's operations are being taken over by JBS USA, an American subsidiary of a Brazilian-owned enterprise.

The agreement provides the company an exclusive option to buy the Canadian and U.S. operations of XL Foods.