Fromagerie Bergeron Inc. found salmonella and has issued a recall for its Gouda products.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said “consumers should not consume the recalled products described below:
Recalled product
Brand
Product
Size
UPC
Codes
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Brins de Gouda"
100 g
0 62036 10100 7
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1763
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Brins de Gouda"
200 g
0 62036 10200 4
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1763
Fromagerie Bergeron
Gouda Curds
180 g
0 62036 02060 5
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1763
Fromagerie Bergeron
Gouda Curds
230 g
0 62036 10230 1
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1763
Fromagerie Bergeron
Gouda Curds
300 g
0 62036 10300 1
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1763
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Brins de Gouda"
340 g
0 62036 10340 7
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1764
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Brins de Gouda"
600 g
0 62036 10600 2
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1764
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Brins de Gouda" ("Refrigéré")
600 g
0 62036 10600 2
Best before: 2019 NO 12 LOT: 19-1764
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Brins de Gouda"
2.5 kg
None
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1764
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Brins de Gouda" ("Poutine fraîche")
2.5 kg
None
Best before: 2019 NO 06 LOT: 19-1764
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Le Populaire"
200 g
0 62036 20200 1
LOT : 19-1763 BEST BEFORE 2020JA21
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Le Populaire"
285 g
0 62036 20336 7
LOT : 19-1763 BEST BEFORE 2020JA21
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Le Populaire"
340 g
0 62036 20340 4
LOT : 19-1763 BEST BEFORE 2020JA21
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Le Populaire"
675 g
0 62036 00745 3
LOT : 19-1763 BEST BEFORE 2020JA21
Fromagerie Bergeron
"Le Populaire"
2 kg
0 62036 22000 5
Best before: 2020JA21 Lot: 19-1763
According to its Facebook page, the company prides itself on quality and food safety. It has been operating for more than 30 years in the tiny community of Sainte-Antoone-de-Tilly on the South shore of the St. Lawrence River about mid-way between Montreal and Quebec City.
The Canadian canola industry emerged from talks in Geneva Tuesday with hopes that a settlement can be reached to restore exports to China.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between officials from China and Canada since March when China suspended canola trade. It was held under the auspices of the World Trade Organization in Geneva.
Brian Innes, vice-president for communications for the Canola Council of Canada, said the Chinese will furnish information about what it wants from Canada.
Then the canola industry can develop recommendations for the best approaches to restoring trade, he indicated in interviews with agriculture reporters.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. had a great third quarter in terms of sales increases, but its profits were cut in half compared to the same third quarter last year. They were $13.4 million.
Overall sales increased by 13.8 per cent to $995.8 million, but the plant protein division’s sales increased by 30 per cent.
President and chief executive officer Michael McCain said the company will continue to invest in expanding the plant protein business.
The problem in the third quarter was an “erratic” pork market, the company said. Prices bounced around and China suspended pork imports from Canada.
The company said it expects things will settle down and the meat business will benefit.
WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer and owner of Smithfield Foods, the largest in the United States, stands to benefit from African Swine Fever in China because it can source pork from the plants it owns in the U.S. and Europe, stock-market analysts say.
Owning those plants gives WH Grou strategic advantages in being able to help boost China’s pork imports despite tariffs imposed amid the U.S.-China trade war, the analysts said this week.
On Monday WH Group reported an 8.5 per cent increase in net profits to $850 million for the January-to-September period.
The company’s stock market share price rose by 5.8 per cent, the largest increase in two months.
Smithfield Foods once bought J.M. Schneider Inc. of Kitchener, then sold it to Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
A California distribution company is suing beef-packing companies, including the four largest in the United States and Canada, for price-fixing.
The lawsuit is similar to one filed earlier by R-CALF (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund).
Pacific Agri-Products Inc. accused Cargill Inc., JBS USA, National Beef Packing and Tyson Foods, among others, of allegedly conspiring to control beef prices since 2015.
The suit claims the defendants “publicly signaled” intentions to reduce slaughter capacity by closing or idling beef plants or by halting expansion plans and that this pushed beef prices higher because supplies were reduced.
Other companies named include Swift Beef Co. and Marfrig Global Foods.
It’s the first legal action by distributors against large U.S. beef processors, but there have been other accusations filedagainst chickenandpork processorsin the last year.
The August 19th letter from Les Producteurs du Lait du Quebec (PLQ, the Quebec milk marketing board) to the Mesdames at the Saint Monastere Vierge – Marie la Consolatrice, on their 265-acre farm in the rocky, bush hills north of Montreal, didn’t mince words.
The letter, written in French and given to Ontario Farmer by the nuns, was translated into English.
After ‘an investigation’ by the PLQ, it ‘leads us to believe’ that over the past two and a half years “you have produced and/or marketed a volume of 38,304 litres of milk without the knowledge of the PLQ and without holding quota,” it stated.
“In consequence, by virtue of article 18 of the Regulations, a penalty of $53,207.00 has been imposed on you. In addition, a penalty of $20,000 has been imposed on you by virtue of article 8.03 of the Conventions,” stated the letter.
In bold print the letter stated, “as of today you must make payment within 10 days of receipt of this notice of $73,207.00 to the PLQ.”
The letter concluded, “govern yourself accordingly.”
The nuns got an extension on paying the fine so they “could work things out.” But any attempts to plead their innocence through two different lawyers have been ignored, they said.
In meeting with Ontario Farmer on October 28, they stated if they did not pay by the end of that month, in three days time, the fine would go up an additional $20,000, totalling $93,207.00 on November 1.
“We don’t have that kind of money,” they said.
A Guernsey calf roams freely on the Monastery store grounds
Three nuns, including the Mother Superior, agreed to meet with Ontario Farmer and go on the record about their situation, including providing documentation, but without using their individual names or allowing personal photographs.
The 25 fully robed sisters on this monastery farm, with various livestock, do all the work themselves, which includes a small licensed cheese factory for goat’s milk. That cheese is also marketed on-site and they get 45,000 visitors per year to their shop selling their farm’s products – and in 120 Quebec IGA stores, with their monastery label attached.
Some years ago they dispersed their on-farm goat herd and merely buy in goat’s milk for their licensed facility. Within days of that plant license being issued, the nun’s chuckle recollecting, “the Montreal Mafia coming out here in their big, black cars, they got out, looked at our small factory, got back in their cars and went back to Montreal. They left us alone.”
“But it seems the Quebec Farmer Milk Mafia isn’t leaving us alone.”
Three years ago, paying $800 a week for their personal consumption of store-bought milk – plus serving about 100 people on a Sunday, with summer services having over double that amount on their farm – and with several sisters having milk health issues, they decided to buy three cows, said the nuns.
Three Guernseys were purchased on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River and whether, because the milk was raw, or A2, the sister’s health issues went away, they said.
“They are such a beautiful animal, God created perfection.”
These cows, plus their calves, are allowed to frolic free over the whole facility and love being petted by the sisters and visitors. Nearly everyone going into the shop usually has a Guernsey within arm’s length to stroke, they said, as was the case with the Ontario Farmer visit.
“About 40,000 of those 45,000 customers per year ask, ‘can we have milk or milk products from those lovely animals?’ ” said the nuns.
Phone inquires were made three years ago to the PLQ and after being informed that the minimum of 12 kilos of quota was required, plus an inspected barn, they shelved the idea and “we only used the milk for ourselves.” Some cow manufactured cheese or yogurt might have been given away to the poor, “when we do that with our excess product,” they said.
But the demands for this cow’s milk by the visiting public became more insistent and another call was made this spring to the PLQ, wondering if there was any way they could market any cow product. Once again they were told the same regulations applied and nothing was done, they said.
On July 5th, with the nun who regularly ran the shop and knew the regulations against retailing cow milk product being down in Halifax, another nun was on duty. A man arrived and wanted to buy some dairy product, “from those beautiful animals outside.”
He was told no, but he kept asking and begging, and so the kindly sister went to the main kitchen and got a container of yogurt made from cow’s milk and labelled as such for the cooks, they said.
The man insisted on paying for it.
Several days later the phone rang and the PLQ person, whom the nuns had been sporadically interacting with on their prior inquiries, was on the line, wanting to know how many litres of cow’s milk they produced per day.
“I don’t know,” replied the administration nun, “I don’t work with the cows.”
She yelled out to a passing nun asking the question and received an estimated volume reply, which was relayed to the PLQ person calling.
“That was their entire investigation,” say the nuns. They have also been informed by the PLQ, through their lawyer “that we have a recording of that conversation saying how many litres you are producing,” they said.
“Everything I said on that phone conversation is the truth, so I’m not worried, but imagine, they would do that,” said the administration nun.
“Perhaps we don’t qualify as a legal family allowed to consume our own milk, but we are sisters here, we are a family.”
Just down the gravel road, leading Holstein breeder Tim Clark, who milks in a robot barn, cites the sisters as being “great neighbours over the years, they are amazing people and do so much good.”
“I have questions for the PLQ,” said Clark. “When someone openly calls for advice, why do you do a sting operation, rather than going out and meeting with them to discuss things? Are all phone calls made to the PLQ recoded?”
The inspectors who ran the sting operation out of the St Eustache office, “look like dorks,” he said.
“Yes, the sisters made a small mistake, selling that container of yogurt, like getting caught speeding going into town,” said Clark. “But that isn’t a $73,000 fine.”
“Is all our heritage gone?” asked the Mother Superior. “Monastery’s helped lay the foundation of this country. Perhaps, out of this, the law can be changed to allow them the freedom to support themselves and do good in their communities.”
And who is there to rein in this abuse of power? If you want to contribute to a fund to help fight this case, contact shawn.tara.mcrae@sympatico.ca .
The Canada Agriculture Appeal Tribunal has yet to publish any decisions on its website from public hearings held as long ago as January.
For example, there was a public hearing in Cambridge in January into an appeal filed by Golden Ontario Products Inc. of Wellington County. It felt the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had been unfairly harsh when it was undergoing construction of a major addition.
There is still no decision available.
Of course, as a jouirnalist, I’m curious.
There have been four appeals by trucking companies against decisions of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and there’s another scheduled for March in Waterloo for Luckhart Transport to make its case.
The federal tribunal is far more bureaucratic than the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal.
The public hearing in January was glacial in its ponderous bureaucratic approach to the issue which, when it came down to it, was quite simple and straightforward.
But, then again, everybody but the appellant was being paid either hourly or daily to be there. And of course the tribunal and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency were paying lawyers to attend; not so the appellant.
I recall the days when the Ontario tribunal first began hearing cases. Veterinarian Dr. Ken McEwen was the chairman and he was relaxed, informal and friendly.
He would begin by asking the appellant, who was usually a quota-holding farmer, to describe his operation.
It put the farmer on familiar ground and helped him to relax and then outline his grievance.
The marketing board would typically be represented by the chairman and the director in whose district the appellant farmed. And they, with help from the general manager, would outline their side of the issue.
No lawyers.
Until the milk board lost a couple of cases and decided to have a lawyer handle its appeals. That changed matters considerably, and as far as I’m concerned, not for the better.
If you want lawyers involved, wait for a tribunal decision and then you can take the case to court.
Justice should not be as difficult to achieve as it has become.
Arden Schneckenburger of Morrisburg has been appointed to a three-year term as chairman of the Business Risk Management Review Committee.
The committee considers appeals from farmers who feel they have legitimate claims to compensation under provincially-funded business risk management programs, such as AgriStability or Wildlife Damage Compensation.
China has approved about 25 meat-packing plants in Brazil to market meat into China.
More approvals are anticipated, according to Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, who recently visited China.
Canada, by contrast, has been cut off from exporting pork to China because it found ractompamine residues in a shipment from a Quebec company, then fraudulent export certificates.
Many in Canada believe it is Chinese pressure tactics to drop extradition proceedings against an Huawei executive the U.S. claims was instrumental in breaking a U.S. ban on exports of sensitive electronic equipment to Iran. The extradition hearings resume in Vancouver in January.
China has also sharply increased pork purchases from United States suppliers as it struggles to dampen soaring pork prices in the wake of the loss of about half of the country’s pigs to African Swine Fever or culling to prevent further spread of the disease.
Brazil is a strange choice for China’s meat inspection approvals because it was hit earlier this year by scandals involving falsification of inspection documents and plant certifications.
James Morin of Sudbury has filed an appeal against the Farm Registration and Farm Organization Funding Act.
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food Appeals Tribunal has schedule a public hearing on Nov. 20 at the Provincial Room C/D, City of Greater Sudbury, 200 Brady Street, Sudbury.
Under the act, all farmers who want to benefit from provincial government subsidies need to register every year and pay a registration fee which also enables them to be a member of one of the three general farm organizations in the province.
The Canadian Pork Council is preparing for disaster if African Swine Fever should ever break out in Canada.
And among those plans is what to do with all the pork that could no longer be exported because nations around the world would ban pork from Canada.
About 70 per cent of Canadian pork is exported.
“Animal health is vital to a strong pork industry in Canada and animal disease is a possibility that we have to contend with. The pork industry and its government partners are working in close collaboration non only to prevent such an eventuality but also prepare for a disease outbreak,” saidRick Bergmann of Manitoba who is chairman the Canadian Pork Council.
The council, meeting in Ottawa this week, also talked about the loss of the Chinese market due to cheating on export certificates.
The Council celebrated the tenth anniversary of the opening of a marketing office in Japan by Canada Pork International. Sales to Japan have increased from about $865 million in 2009 to about $1.3 billion last year.
The Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement helped, but this fall the U.S. negotiated a similar deal for its pork exports to Japan.
Recalled product
