It is, however, continuing its investigation, particularly
to determine why Ontario has a much higher incidence of Nest Run eggs than
other provinces.
In Ontario, it’s 12.1 per cent of farmers’ eggs that are
graded “Nest Run,” meaning they are diverted to processors. In other provinces,
it’s 8.4 per cent.
In Ontario, L.H. Gray & Son Ltd. and Burnbrae Farms are
the largest egg producers and own the biggest grading stations and
egg-processing plants.
They handle about 90 per cent of eggs farmers produce. They
benefit if eggs are diverted for processing at their plants.
The final report reveals that the audit, ordered by the
Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission in May of 2013, was conducted by a
team from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
They work for the Transportation and Agriculture Audit Services
Team. The report is signed by Brad Henderson, senior audit manager who is both
a certified public accountant and a chartered accountant, by John Connonlly,
risk and assurance consultant, and John Thomann, an audit project manager.
They found that the management at the egg board follows a
written structure with defined roles and responsibilities, that all spending
appears to be in order with budgets and that the board relies on the national
agency for cost-of-production data and on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
for the accuracy of grading.
The report says the CFIA has a “tolerance for cracks” as
eggs move from grading into storage. That has been a contentious issue in a
lawsuit between Svante Lind of Best Choice Eggs and Gray, Burnbrae and the egg
board.
There is no mention of a tolerance in the CFIA standards for
egg grading.
Information from CFIA random-sample surveys, obtained by
Ontario Farmer via Freedom-of-Information requests, indicates that Burnbrae and
Gray often had samples with seven per cent or more cracks or eggs that
otherwise failed to comply with the Grade A standards claimed on packaging.
The auditors say the incidence of cracks is roughly the same
in Ontario as other provinces.
Burnbrae and Gray also have grading stations in other
provinces, including Quebec and British Columbia which are second and third in
egg-production in Canada.
The lawsuit Lind has filed is still before the courts.
Burnbrae won a court decision to be dismissed from the
lawsuit and Lind’s lawyers have recently lost an effort to have that decision
reviewed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
