An Alberta woman got less than she wanted when she bought a package of wheat kernels from a Lethbridge grocery store in mid-December.
Judith Nickol of Coaldale wanted to use the 450 gram package of wheat seeds to add to her baked bread dough.
“We are farmers and have grown all kinds of grain – wheat, durum, mustard. I knew right away when I opened it that I wasn’t about to be eating it.”
She said the seeds in the bag didn’t look right. Some were sprouted, some looked damaged or diseased, and others were definitely not wheat.
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Her consumer odyssey had started.
She took a sample from the bag to her local Parrish & Heimbecker elevator agent. He told The Western Producer that Nickol’s sample had sprouted seeds and that he couldn’t tell what variety of wheat it was.
If a farmer had delivered that sample, it would grade No. 3, he added.
Nickol asked her two brothers to look at what she’d bought. They thought it was an American wheat variety and that there was fusarium in it. There were also lots of corn and barley seeds.
She contacted the grocery store about the bag of “wheat,” but heard nothing. So next, she contacted the Vancouver head office of Save-On Foods.
A spokesperson asked her to send the bag and its lot and UPC numbers so she could trace the supplier. It went by courier Jan. 14.
The mystery continued.
As of Jan. 29, the grocery people could confirm two facts for her: it was an American wheat variety and the supplier was an established Manitoba firm. No names were given for either. And, the grocery chain needed more time to do more tests, she was told.
Nickol had bought a second bag of the product in early January to see if it looked different. This time it had more wheat, but there were still other seeds and it still had damaged kernels that she thought showed fusarium.
The next time she went to the store, the bags had all been removed from the natural foods section.
“Most of my friends in town don’t know what wheat looks like,” she said.
Based on her concerns as a consumer and farmer, she has two questions about the product she bought. She wonders why a Canadian grocer would be selling American and not Canadian wheat.
She said one of Save-On Foods’ head office people said it was based on price. He wouldn’t pay the approximately $7 a bushel that the Canadian Wheat Board charges for top quality wheat.
Nickol said based on the $1.19 she paid for her bag in the store, the wheat it contained would cost $73 a bu.
She is also concerned that the bag might test positive for fusarium, a fungal disease.
The Alberta government banned imports of fusarium-contaminated wheat last year when it became obvious the problem was spreading west from Manitoba.
Chris Sudak of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s food safety and fair labelling practice group said the agency would have to follow up if there is a chance the bag contained fusarium-infected grain.
“We definitely have to trace back to the supplier and determine whether it’s fusarium.”
