Documents filed in federal court in Ottawa indicate the
situation in the Ontario egg-grading industry is far worse than revelations so
far.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s random-sample audits
indicate that some lots they examined had failure rates of more than 11 per
cent for eggs graded by L.H. Gray & Son Ltd. and Burnbrae Farms Ltd.
The two companies account for about 90 per cent of the eggs
graded in Ontario and are dominant egg graders and processors across Canada.
For example, a lot at Gray’s grading station in Listowel
examined on Oct. 18, 2010, identified 23 rejects; the CFIA administrative
tolerance for that lot is described as 13 eggs, or 1.77 per cent.
There is nothing in the law governing egg grading that
allows any tolerance at the grading-station level of business.
The inspection report notes that another random-sample lot
taken in July also flunked, so the plant was put “into tightened inspection
level”.
A whistleblower has alleged that Gray routinely incorporated
cracked eggs into Grade A retail-ready cartons, and the random-sample reports
substantiate that allegation.
There are many of the reports showing that three to five per
cent of the eggs put into Grade A cartons by Gray were in fact cracks.
An example is 5.25 per cent cracks identified in a sample
drawn at Listowel on Oct. 28, 2011.
Two samples drawn on Oct. 22, 2009, had five per cent or
more cracks., one on Oct. 25, 2011, had seven per cent and another on Dec. 29,
2011, had five per cent cracks in the pack.
The results are similar at Gray’s plant at Strathroy where
three samples examined Nov. 2010, had 6.5 per cent, 4.7 per cent and five per
cent cracks in the pack.
The highest rates of cracks at Gray’s Strathroy plant were
8.7 per cent in a sample examined on Oct. 7, 2011, and 11.8 per cent in a
combination of cracks and undergrades in the pack on Oct 13, 20111.
The results for Burnbrae Farms Ltd. are similar.
For example, on Nov. 21, 2011, there were five per cent
cracks in a pack for “Selection” store-brand eggs and 4.2 per cent in a sample
drawn the same day from a lot of brown-shell Omega-3 Naturegg brand eggs.
One sample drawn on Nov. 10, 2009, had 12.5 per cent rejects
and another 7.7 per cent, both under the Super Bonee label.
These reports are for Burnbrae’s Maple Lynn Foods Ltd.
egg-grading plant at Strathroy. Inspectors “detained” one lot on Oct. 13, 2011,
because the combined failure rate for cracks and undergrades was 12.56 per
cent.
The court documents
show that Burnbrae successfully argued last spring that the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency ought to heavily censor all of the grading results before
responding to an Access-to-Information request for the results of random-sample
testing in the final quarters of years 2009, 2010 and 2011.
That decision was over-turned on appeal to the Information
Commissioner and the CFIA notified Burnbrae owner Joe Hudson that it intended
to release the grading results.
That prompted lawyer David McCutcheon to file an appeal to
the federal court.
After the CFIA filed the records in the court, lawyers for
the egg-grading companies sought a sealing order to conceal them from
public access.
They are fighting a lawsuit filed by Svante Lind, owner of
Best Choice Eggs, against the two companies and the Egg Farmers of Ontario
marketing board, alleging a conspiracy to drive him out of the egg-grading
business. He has, in fact, sold his business.
The lawsuit originated with an egg board accusation that
Lind’s percentage of Grade A eggs was lower than the provincial average and
that he was therefore cheating on levies to fund the egg board. The egg board
funds its operations by charging a levy on all Grade A eggs produced by its
farmer-members.
None of the allegations against Burnbrae, Gray and the egg
board have been tested in court. Gray’s lawyer, Alison Webster, says her client
has done nothing wrong, a claim echoed by Burnbrae’s lawyers.
The results of the random-sample audits have not previously
been made public, either by the CFIA or in court documents.
