Monster trucks and expired-cheese together in Canada

Health inspectors with Vancouver Coastal Health met with officials at B.C. Place on Tuesday after expired cheese was used in hamburgers sold at last weekend’s monster truck show.

The Province reports that inspectors were called in after an employee of a food contractor at the stadium went public about the suspect burgers.

According to worker Jessica Degenstein, she was ordered to put sliced cheddar cheese that had a best-before-date of Dec. 11. on the monster-truckburgers. She estimates more than 6,000 cheeseburgers were sold during the event Saturday.

Anna Marie D’ Angelo, a spokeswoman with coastal health, said at this point they don’t have any reports of people getting ill from the outdated cheese.

“It is a matter of food quality not food safety,” she said.

She said the inspectors would review procedures with those in the food-catering business at B.C. Place about food-expiry dates.

The company running the food vending at B.C. Place is Centerplate. A statement was issued by the firm Monday:

“At Centerplate, no issue is more important than the health and safety of our guests.

“We are aware of allegations made by a former employee at B.C. Place, and are fully co-operating with the local health department, as well as conducting our own investigation into the matter.

“On the evening in question, Centerplate employees took immediate action to quickly rectify the reported issue.

“Accordingly, there is currently no evidence of any health threat to our guests and fans at B.C. Place.”

Degenstein has since left the company.

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About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time