A food safety expert says an object that a Calgary man claims his son bit into while eating dinner appears to be a meat tenderizing needle.
James Deane, 6, was eating a hamburger made from meat purchased from Costco on Wednesday night when he bit into the needle.
“Meat gets injected with brine or flavouring a lot of times because they’re using a lesser cut or a tough cut” says president of Canadian Food Safety Group, Domenic Pedulla.
This type of incident is usually caught before hitting store shelves, because processors run their product through metal detectors.
Unfortunately, Pedulla says there isn’t much consumers can do to protect themselves from a similar situation.
“That’s really tough. You rely on the processor to do their job. You’re at their mercy.”
The good news is that foreign objects appearing in food is a trend that seems to becoming less common, according to Pedulla.
“Because processors are tightening up their procedures and the technology is getting better.”
James’ father, Mike Deane, quickly contacted Costco and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after the startling discovery. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency launched an investigation.
Costco confirms the meat was purchased at their south Calgary store, and that they have started their own investigation with the supplier, JBS, which has a plant in Brooks.
JBS tells Global News that they are aware of the allegations, and cooperating with the investigation.
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