Cherry Hill Coffee responded Friday to news its N7 Cold Brew Coffee product had been pulled from store shelves over a botulism scare.
In an email release - Cherry Hill Coffee says "the most important issue here is public safety" and stressed the recall was voluntary.
The company says "it is important to note that there has not been a single incident or report of anyone getting sick from drinking N7 Nitro Cold Brew Coffee from any of our retailers in BC, but at Cherry Hill Coffee safety and quality are paramount and neither will be compromised.
It is also important to note that at no point did Interior Heath issue a product recall as many media reports have incorrectly stated. It was a voluntary recall initiated by us.
On Friday, March 15th 2019, Cherry Hill Coffee met with Interior Health who provided new information and studies on the health risks of Cold Brew Coffee.
A relatively new trend, cold brew coffee has a higher food safety risk than hot coffee because it is produced without heat and slowly and is not meant for immediate consumption.
(More information on cold brew coffee found here.)
We worked with Interior Health, who reviewed our production and distribution and determined that we needed to make improvements to our transport and delivery to ensure we maintain refrigeration of the product at all times.
Interior Health indicated we could still proceed with manufacturing and sales of the cold brew coffee, but we were instructed to change our Best Before Date from 4 months to 2 months and to improve record keeping.
In light of the new information and concerns that refrigeration at retail or the consumer level were beyond our immediate control, we thought the responsible measure was to cease any production or sales and conduct a voluntary recall.
This was the sole and unanimous decision of the team at Cherry Hill Coffee and was not mandated by Interior Health.
We immediately called and visited all of our clients that might still have any product. We are pleased to say we recovered more than 90 per cent of the product in the field. Throughout this process we were in constant communication with Interior Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Upon completion of recovering the product; Interior Health felt a public announcement would help with the voluntary recall.
We would like to thank our clients, Interior Health, CFIA and all our customers for the support we have received through this process.
If you have an N7 Nitro Cold Brew we ask that you either dispose, return to Cherry Hill Coffee or the retailer that you purchased from. The product has a Best Before Date, and like any foods, we urge that you not consume any product that is either past date or missing this.