THUNDER BAY — A Justice of the Peace has fined North Country Premium Sausage Co. and its owner a total of $2500 for moving or interfering with a product that had been detained by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
The owner of the company says the government "has changed the rules" to the point that North Country will now stop processing wild game for members of the public who request the service.
According to a ministry news release, on November 20, 2017 inspectors went to the provincially-licensed meat plant on Euclid Avenue and discovered wild game carcasses and wild game parts inside a raw cooler "next to and touching domestic beef and pork."
The storage of wild game beside approved meat is not permitted under the Food Safety and Quality Act.
The inspectors, the release states, "ordered the removal of all wild game from the cooler, placed detention stickers on the meat carcasses and served a Notice of Detention" to owner Kevin Doyle. This was done "to identify the affected meat and allow the inspectors to examine the domestic beef and pork for signs of contamination from the wild game."
Doyle, the ministry said, told the inspectors he understood the Notice of Detention and signed the detention document.
Two days later, inspectors returned to the plant and discovered "the detained meat had been moved and interfered with."
The ministry said Doyle later admitted he personally moved the meat within the cooler, and personally removed some of the detained meat.
In addition to fining the company $1,500 and the owner $1,000, the court imposed Victim Fine Surcharges totalling $500.
Doyle told Tbnewswatch that during wild game season, for about the past 20 years, the company has made sausage for clients. "You bring your deer in, we process it," for sausage, he said.
But the practice will now end, Doyle said, because "they changed the rules so much on us."
Tbnewswatch sought clarification from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food about what the investigation had concluded.
A ministry spokesperson provided this response via email on Monday: "Food safety is our priority. Ontario has food safety laws and programs that are part of a broader system that helps to protect the health of the public. These are designed to identify and address potential food safety hazards before they occur."
