Penicillin-contaminated pork was recalled by Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods in Saskatoon last weekend.
More than 500 pigs were slaughtered and processed in the first couple of hours of business at Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods on Dec. 5.
A day earlier a single hog operation shipped 215 hogs to slaughter at the Saskatoon meat packer. Theirs were among the first to be on the kill floor.
Six animals killed that morning were selected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for random drug testing. The liver of one of the six indicated positive for the presence of penicillin. The antibiotic measured 0.9 parts per million in that animal and one other tested. CFIA regulations have zero tolerance for the drug.
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Eating the pork may cause a serious reaction in persons with allergies to penicillin, said the agency in its recall notice.
“Somewhere out there withdrawal times (for the antibiotic) were not followed,” said Don Hepburn, the agency’s Western Canadian director of animal programs.
Mitchell’s president Stu Irvine said the Dec. 8 recall affected only 20 animals out of the 215 they received from the producer in question.
“But by then we had lost control of them. They were processed (and shipped)….
“It was in 800 kilograms of meat. We have recalled 20,000 kg to ensure that we have it all,” he said.
Hepburn said the contaminated meat is limited to fresh packed product.
“Other than some local product most of it that was shipped never reached the stores. It was still on the trucks,” he said.
The fresh pork was shipped as far east as Thunder Bay, Ont., and as far west as British Columbia, according to the agency’s recall documents. Consumers can return Mitchell’s pork dated between Dec. 5-9 to stores.
Hepburn said he “can’t remember the last time penicillin caused a recall …. It doesn’t happen very often.”
