Unless on crossing the Atlantic E. Coli O147: H7 loses it's potency?
I'm not sure whether you said earlier on in the process whether you're working to a standard? I'm certain BRC wouldn't allow this anymore, not sure about other ones. Our governmental environmental health officers would at least raise an improvement notice. Certainly anyone familiar with the Welsh case would be horrified but I suppose you might be lucky (or unlucky) that it's unlikely in Canada?
Personally I couldn't live with the moral cost of this. A butcher who did the exact same process ended up in prison (for an inconsequential amount of time in my view)
because his actions killed a child. I really don't understand why that wouldn't make any food safety professional think "this is more important than anything else I've ever done to make sure we don't introduce the same risk". Perhaps it's just because I have a toddler and I am a lot less tolerant but if you can't make your managers understand the risks here, what are you doing in that company? Are you prepared to harm or kill someone to keep your job? Go to gaol?
You might think I'm going over the top but when your process is so similar to something which killed a child, why on earth would you want to "risk assess it away"?
It is your job as a food safety professional to get the big boots on sometimes and say NO!
Sorry, just can't be rational on this one.
If it were me and the boss didn't listen to me, I would ensure I had some written evidence of my concerns and go straight to the EHO and be a whistleblower.