HILLSBOROUGH -- Except for its ice cream, Maple View Farm has pulled all its milk and milk products off the shelves until the beginning of next week at the earliest.
That affects approximately 46 stores in six counties -- in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough as well as Durham, Pittsboro, Apex, Burlington, Cary, Morrisville, Graham, Raleigh and Sanford. The stores range from Weaver Street Market and Whole Foods to Harris Teeter and Lowe's groceries.
Maple View didn't recall its ice cream because the current supply was made from milk produced before any potential problems emerged, said Roger Nutter, manager of the farm's milk plant.
Nutter said Friday the farm hopes to resume bottling milk on Sunday if all further tests come back clear.
The recall was a reaction to test results this week that showed a level of aflatoxins above federal standards, in milk from the farm and corn that had been fed to the dairy's cows. State and federal agriculture officials describe aflatoxins as a byproduct of the mold Aspergillus flavus, and a potential carcinogen for humans and livestock when ingested in very large amounts.
The last time state agriculture officials recorded aflatoxins above the limits was February 2004 at a Harnett County dairy farm, said Joe Reardon, director of the Food and Drug Protection Division of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Reardon's division and Maple View managers point to a load of feed corn the farm had purchased recently from another farm as the source of the problem. Back in February, testing at Maple View by the state didn't show any problems, Reardon said.
He said his office hasn't had any reports of illness from consumers this week and doesn't expect any adverse impacts from a single day's consumption of milk from the farm. But the farm has gone ahead and pulled its products until it's certain no aflatoxins remains in the cows' systems, Nutter said.
"We're not going to put a product out there unless the quality is there, and every test will be run and everything will come back negative before we put any milk out," Nutter said. "We appreciate the patience of all our customers and we will try to get the milk out there as soon as possible."
On Thursday, Maple View got word that periodic testing had turned up a level of aflatoxins in some of the farm's milk at slightly higher than the limit of 0.5 parts per billion set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That prompted the farm to recall its milk, cream and butter with a sell-buy date of Aug. 25 and buttermilk with the Sept. 5 date -- essentially one day's worth of production from the farm.
Later that day, officials tested the corn in question at Maple View, and results were more than 200 parts per billion for aflatoxins, Reardon said. The federal standard is 20 parts per billion.
Maple View had stopped feeding that corn to its cows immediately after the first positive test of the milk on Thursday, farm managers said. It's been feeding a new supply of corn since Friday.
But the farm decided Friday to recall all products, which Reardon described as a voluntary step.
"We regret this for [Maple View], but this is what we do," Reardon said. "The farm is taking a very proactive approach to ensuring that any products on the market are safe.
"People did have some concerns, but they're also saying they value [the farm's] products very much," he said, about calls the state has received since Thursday. "People put a lot of confidence in his product. Some said it's the only milk they can drink or will drink."
Nutter said the farm contacted all its retail customers to tell them to pull the milk. After dumping several days' worth of milk and products, the hope is that the state's tests today will come back with good results, and that production can resume on Sunday.
"It takes about three milkings normally, from the time you put the cows on [different] feed," Reardon said.
Asked about the financial impacts, Nutter said the farm's insurance company still was looking into the situation, but the farm's chances didn't look good initially for covering its losses, he said.
"Thank you for your continued support of Maple View Farm and be assured that we would never put any product out for consumption that we did not think was safe or would cause harm to anyone," the farm stated on its Web site.