 Staff photo |
| Milk back on the shelves. |
Maple View farm milk is back on most shelves again after being voluntarily recalled late last week due to levels of aflatoxin - a known carcinogen - found in the products.
According to North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Director Joe Reardon, elevated levels of aflatoxins in the milk were traced to corn the farm was feeding to its cows.
The farm immediately switched to new feed upon the discovery and was cleared Saturday to resume milk production.
“We are bottling today,” co-owner Muffin Brosig confirmed Monday afternoon. “The trucks are leaving right now.”
On Monday afternoon, the shelves at the dairy's Country Store were stocked with fresh milk.
Brosig said most stores will receive their products this week. The farm plans to bottle again on Wednesday.
“We expect it will take us most of this week and into next week before we have milk in all of our stores,” she said.
The dairy lost more than 7,000 gallons on the recall, or about 2 percent of its yearly production.
“It's going to be a major impact,” Brosig said of the loss. “It's an entire week's worth of milk we just had to dump.”
The problem began when the farm owners switched to a local corn provider. They assumed the corn had been tested for aflatoxin.
According to Reardon, aflatoxin is a byproduct of the mold Aspergillus flavus, which may affect grain and forage products consumed by livestock.
In large amounts, it is known to cause stillbirths and cancer in humans.
Levels were in excess of 0.5 parts per billion when tested.
No ice cream was affected by the recall, and no illnesses were reported from the milk products.
Affected products in Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Lee, Orange and Wake counties were packaged in plastic pints, returnable glass quarts and returnable glass half-gallons.
But anyone who has purchased a product with a sell by stamp of Aug. 25 is encouraged to return it to the store it was purchased from or the Country Store at 6900 Rocky Ridge Road.
Comments? Send them via email to: keri.sprenger@newsoforange.com
Staff photo |
| Milk back on the shelves. |