Here is a rare guest blog from my cousin Sal. It really speaks for itself.
Official photo file name, as saved by Sally: "WTF."
To Whom it May Concern:
Who doesn't like cheese? My boyfriend and I can't keep enough cheese in the house. So imagine our delight Sunday night when I cracked open a big brick of Lucerne Old Light cheddar, distributed, according to the packaging, from Calgary, to my Duncan, B.C. Safeway.
It was on sale from $11.80, or so, to $8.99. Not a bad deal at all! If there's one thing we like more than cheese, it's cheese on sale.
In any event, I cut off a chunk to further chop up for today's lunches, handed my boyfriend a second chunk to shred for tonight's dinner (tacos, if you wondered) and put the remainder back in the fridge.
It wasn't even two slices in that my knife bucked, hitting a hard object IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CHEESE.
WHAT THE HECK?
I like my cheese with crackers. I enjoy it with a sandwich or a good salad and, heck, I'll eat it on its own with no complaints. What I just yesterday learned, though, is that I do not care for PLASTIC CHUNKS OF GOD KNOWS WHAT lodged in my cheese. (see attached photos).
Naturally, I did what any younger sister would do in the circumstances. I called my big sister.
"Put it in the newspaper!" she said. I'm a reporter. People generally call me when things like this happen, and I write a public safety story and guilt big wigs like you into making it right.
But I don't really want to bring negative attention to Lucerne or to Safeway. I've grown up with both and do feel a sense of loyalty in that regard.
However, I am quite concerned and frankly uneasy now about what is going on at the factory where this cheese was made.
Lucerne Canada's own website notes that "Lucerne Foods utilizes its large base of experienced technical management from a cross section of major consumer product companies to keep quality and food safety at the forefront of our business."
Now, the quality of the plastic chunk in my cheese is up for debate, but I assure you to consume it is in no way safe. Had I (excuse the double entendre) cut the cheese a different way I may not have noticed the plastic piece until it was un my mouth and no doubt, breaking my teeth and/or gums.
Worse, my sister and her three young children (who coincidently also love cheese. It must be genetic) will be visiting this week and could have easily been the ones to eat that product. I shudder to think what that plastic piece would have done to their little teeth, mouths, and God forbid if they had choked.
No doubt you never intended to serve me plastic shards with my dairy... But you have. And it worries me deeply. Who else did you serve? Where's the remainder of whatever part this plastic broke free from? Has your factory noticed a piece of their machine is missing? Are people going to dull their good knives like I did, trying to slice through their food only to hit plastic?
So many questions.
And so I'd really like some answers. And a refund for my cheese. Because I can't in good conscience eat it now. I have the receipt, the plastic bit (and as a special bonus I've kept the cheese it was embedded in for you as well), and I have the remainder of the brick and what we shredded. I'm happy to turn it all over because I've completely lost faith in it being safe to eat.
Please do advise on Canada Post's cheese encased plastic mailing protocol.
I await your reply.
Sarah