Joe Hudson and his Burnbrae and Maple Lynn operations have
run into some flak from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, including cracks
and dirts in what’s claimed to be Grade A eggs.
The information slips through the cracks of heavy censorship
of 125 pages of documents the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has released
after I filed a request about two years ago.
Among the most damaging information is a report that
indicates a shipment that was cleared for market from Burnbrae Farms was later
found deficient by Canadian Food Inspection Agency people at Best Choice Eggs
at Blackstock.
That is similar to shipments from L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd. to
Best Choice.
The documentation indicates the CFIA inspector, Paul Smith,
at Best Choice ordered a shipment of boxes of large brown loose eggs be sent
back to Burnbrae Farms “for correction”.
That happened Aug. 5, 2009.
The volume of eggs involved is censored out of the report.
Other documents indicate that large lots of eggs were
condemned by inspectors because they failed to meet Grade A standards. Some of
the reports indicate the number of cracks and dirts found in the packaged eggs.
There are also many reports detailing deficiencies at the
Burnbrae and Maple Lynn facilities, such as cracks in the walls, dirty drains,
dust and dirt and ceilings that are not smooth and impervious.
The reports tend to confirm allegations lawyer Donald Good
made that “everything that (L.H.) Gray (and Sons Ltd. was doing, Burnbrae was
doing.”
Good, acting on behalf of Svante Lind, owner of Best Choice
Eggs, has accused Gray, Burnbrae and the Ontario egg marketing board of
conspiracy to drive Lind out of the egg-grading business.
One of the allegations is that Gray and Burnbrae, to keep Lind from importing eggs from the United States, supplied him with Ontario eggs that were woefully deficient of the grade standards claimed.
Gray and Hudson have denied all of the allegations. Neither the allegations nor the denials have been tested in court and no court date has yet been set.
Lawyers are still wrangling
over how much evidence contained in electronic files from L.H. Gray and Sons
Ltd., and being held by a supervising solicitor in Kitchener, will be allowed
as evidence in the multi-million-dollar lawsuit.
