Canada's mushroom growers are annoyed that there have been four recent recalls prompted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that, on further examination, all proved to be false alarms.
Bill Stevens of Guelph, who works for the Mushroom Growers Association, said the recalls have been prompted by the CFIA after inspectors picked up samples are retail stores and ran a rapid screening test for harmful bacteria.
Those preliminary tests indicated there might be a problem, and on that basis recalls went into effect, each one costing the grower about $30,000, Stevens told me recently.
Four-day and more thorough culture tests found no harmful bacteria. Oops!
Stevens said one of the association members has told the CFIA that if it orders a recall on a similar rapid-screening test basis of samples picked up at retail outlets, he will call his lawyer to deal with the CFIA.
It seems that every day now I run into another complaint about the CFIA.
And what the CFIA has been saying throughout this E. coli disaster at XL Foods Inc. in Alberta prompts me to question whether the public can believe a word its leaders say.
