Documents released under Access to Information indicate
Burnbrae Farms Ltd. struggled for months trying to get rid of salmonella in its
egg-grading station at Lyn.
Salmonella montivideo was first detected by CFIA testing in
March, 2016, but it wasn’t until December that ongoing testing at the station
failed to turn up salmonella.
Burnbrae filed repeated “action plans” to respond to the
CFIA test results, but in April, July and September CFIA tests indicated those
action plans did not clean up the grading station.
The issue is particularly serious if salmonella can get
inside cracked eggs. The documents released to a reporter indicate that some cracked
eggs did pass from that grading station to retail outlets.
Even though Burnbrae is the largest egg-grading,
egg-producing and egg-processing business in Canada, capable of employing the
most advanced and automated technology, CFIA inspections continued to detect
eggs that were cracked and dirty.
Similar issues, albeit less frequent, turned up at Gray
Ridge Eggs at Strathroy. It is Canada’s second-largest egg grader, producer and
processor.
The two grade more than 90 per cent of eggs reaching
consumers in Ontario.
Burnbrae not only had troubles with salmonella, but also
with facility maintenance.
Inspectors filed repeated complaints about wet and dirty
floors and condensation and twice extended deadlines to have floor repairs and
relocation of a floor drain completed – first to Jan. 31, then to Feb. 28.
Burnbrae Farms also fed a ration containing an illegal
chemical for laying hens. The CFIA detected residue and warned the company.
The documents indicate the CFIA considered the residue level
detected in retail-ready eggs to be low enough that a recall was not necessary.
The chemical is not identified in the documents, but they
are heavily censored, particularly responses Burnbrae filed with the CFIA. Most
of those are completely blocked from release.
Both Burnbrae and Gray Ridge have a long history of
marketing eggs that are cracked and dirty, all of it documented in
previously-released inspection reports obtained via Access to Information.
There have been unofficial estimates that each of the companies has
been able to increase profits in excess of $10 million a year by selling some
cracked and dirty eggs.
Producers and the Ontario marketing board also profit by
inflating the percentage of eggs that are passed off as Grade A – producers because
they get paid top price for their eggs and the marketing board because it is
funded by a levy, or tax, that applies only to Grade A eggs.
