Vegpro International’s Fresh Attitude brand salad greens are already on the shelf at a Vernon grocery store.
However, the facility in Coldstream, B.C., where they were packaged has yet to receive the required plan approval from the health authority.
The company stands by its products and said it simply was not aware of the Interior Health requirement.
“We are safe and we are sustainable. We are proud of what we do … We know that we are producing good food,” said Jonathan Blais, the company’s western region director of corporate development and administration.
“We report to many different other auditors out there but we didn’t think Interior Health had to be involved.”
The company is now working with the health authority.
“They did a complete tour of our facility. We’ve got nothing to hide. We want to be compliant and if we need to be compliant with Interior Health, we will do everything possible to make sure that we are,” Blais said.
Interior Health inspected the facility Monday and found the plant is safe.
“The sanitation issues, water supply, hand washing stations, foot wash trays, separations of product lines … are in place,” said Kevin Touchet, the health authority’s manager of environmental health.
“We are satisfied that there is no health concern related to the operation of the plant.”
The plant has been operating for over a week. However, on Friday, Interior Health said it didn’t know the plant was operating, which raised questions about the diligence of the health authority’s regulatory efforts.
“We will look at our procedures and see if there is any thing that we can do to adjust our way of doing business to put more safeguards in place,” Touchet said.
Interior Health’s final approval of the company’s facility plan is still pending.
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