NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. — Chris Bell was left with a bad taste in her mouth after finding a “foreign object” in her Mott’s Clamato juice.
The taste got worse after her dealings with the customer service representative for the company.
“It looks almost like a roundish, thin sanitary pad that is folded up … or a Band-Aid,” Bell told the Post on Oct. 17.
“It looks like it could be plastic on one side. The colours are like an orange peel with zest on one side and pith on the other … It also looks like it could be the goopy pad under packed meat to soak up the myoglobin.”
Bell and her son have been drinking the juice for years and she said they had this bottle open in the fridge for about four weeks — the usual length of time it takes them to finish a bottle.
There was only a couple of inches left, Bell thinks, when her son went to pour a glass and uncovered the item.
“I was disgusted (when we found it). It turned my stomach,” she said noting she didn’t get sick and neither she nor her son noticed a difference in the taste or smell of the juice.
Bell called the company’s customer service line but felt her complaint fell on deaf ears. The person who took her call repeatedly asked the same questions, including if she had gotten sick and told her it was probably mould because they had it in the fridge for too long.
“She was unprofessional and she wasn’t any help at all,” Bell said. “The expiry on the bottle is for 2020. If a bottle isn’t supposed to be open in the fridge for more than two to three weeks, there should be a best before date on it for after opening.”
The customer service agent offered Bell a free bottle and asked her to ship the old one with the object in it to be examined. However, Bell felt the company wouldn’t follow up and tell her what they found, so she didn't send it.
“If there was something wrong with that bottle of Clamato juice we drank, than I deserve to know about it,” she said. “I didn’t trust that the company would let me know what they found.”
In an email response to questions from the Post, company spokesperson Molly Munroe said Keurig Dr Pepper (the company that owns Mott's Clamato juice) does have "best in class manufacturing processes" and they pay "the highest attention to quality and safety."
"We take all complaints very seriously and investigate them thoroughly,' said Munroe, who was not the customer service representative who Bell spoke to.
"Mott’s Clamato products carry “Best By (BB) YEAR MONTH DAY” date labels to ensure quality through the established shelf life. Given the absence of preservatives in many of our products, including Mott’s Clamato, a product opened, and held for extended periods of time, even in a refrigerator, can lead to spoilage, including mould. This will affect the taste of the product and, if consumed, may cause minor stomach upset."
Since Bell's juice didn't make her sick and didn't taste different, she decided to toss the bottle instead of sending it to the company. But still Bells feels there should have been an option for her to find out what was in her juice. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is that option.
Along with investigating trade complaints, recalls from other countries and wholesalers, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency deals with consumer complaints like Bell's and, unlike a private company, they will tell you what they found.
From April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019 (the agency's last reporting cycle), the organization conducted 3,325 food safety investigations and received 2,413 food safety complaints. Out of those 1,381 were "related to extraneous material" and 626 were microbiological, like mould.
According to data found on the food inspection agency's website, from April 2006 to March 2013, complaints regarding finding extraneous material in a food product were always the highest.
Anyone wishing to file a food safety complaint with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency can do so online at: https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/information-for-consumers/report-a-concern/eng/1364500149016/1364500195684 .
