'Unreliable' sampling techniques saw N.L. board halt penalties against milk producers

A provincial oversight body recently stopped the Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador from slapping milk producers with financial penalties under a new quality assurance program, because of a "lack of confidence in the integrity of their program."

The Farm Industry Review Board imposed the decision in January.

"It was decided that the matter warranted quick intervention to prevent further damage to the industry," advised a Jan. 26, 2018, briefing note for Gerry Byrne, the minister in charge of agriculture.

The Dairy Farmers association got lawyers involved, and said the conflict could end up in excess milk being dumped instead of being exported to mainland markets.

All that information comes from Department of Land Resources briefing materials that were released to CBC News on Tuesday.

A week ago, the department insisted those same records had to remain secret, because divulging anything in them would be too harmful to the financial interests of the province.

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"It is important to note that this is not a public health issue, but an issue related to the processing of dairy products; raw milk of a lower quality has a negative impact on the processing sector," the briefing materials note.

It is important to note that this is not a public health issue.- N.L. government briefing notes

This type of sampling plays only a small role in overall milk quality testing, provincial officials stressed.

Both raw and pasteurized milk are tested by multiple parties, and all milk is pasteurized before it can be sold to consumers.

But the internal government documents obtained by CBC News outline a conflict that the Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador said could have had a serious impact on the industry.

However, the province and the Dairy Farmers association now say the entire matter is close to a resolution.

Penalties under new program

According to the briefing materials, the Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador asked the province to implement a nationwide milk quality program last August, to synchronize with the rest of the country.

The Farm Industry Review Board approved the move, under the assurance that it was unlikely the penalty portions of the program would ever take effect.

But that didn't turn out to be the case.

This was a situation where more than likely good milk was deemed to be contaminated or inappropriate for human consumption based on a false test.- Land Resources Minister Gerry Byrne

A few months after the program started, an unnamed farm was hit with a penalty, and others were close to triggering them.

The province looked into the situation, and determined that "milk sampling techniques being employed for the program were unreliable."

Truck drivers were certified to do the work, but provincial officials believed procedures weren't always being followed. For example, samples weren't being kept at the proper temperature for the 24 hours it took to deliver them to testing labs in St. John's from the west coast, creating inaccurate results.

"No bad milk entered into the food chain or the food system," Land Resources Minister Gerry Byrne said in an interview.

"This was a situation where more than likely good milk was deemed to be contaminated or inappropriate for human consumption based on a false test."

Possible 'repercussions' on exports

According to the briefing notes, the Dairy Farmers association said there could be "repercussions" for not following through on penalties under the new quality rules — for example, other provinces would no longer accept milk from Newfoundland, which would result in the disposal of excess product.

John Moores, general manager of the Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador, told CBC News late Tuesday there have "not been any issues placing raw milk relative to milk quality concerns." 

In January, the Farm Industry Review Board decided to stop the Dairy Farmers from imposing penalties, and ordered a review.

Officials said it is close to wrapping up.

"There is a group working to review and implement more stringent guidelines for sample collection, handling, and transportation," Moores noted by email.

"Once these new guidelines have been fully implemented the penalty portion of the program will be reactivated. We do not foresee this process taking much longer and expect that to be fully implemented in the coming weeks."

'Public confidence ... was compromised'

Byrne, meanwhile, is defending his department's decision to initially classify all of this information as off-limits to the public last week.

He suggested CBC News coverage of that decision forced the government's hand now.

"Public confidence in the food system was compromised, because there were assumptions and inferences that were made as a result of this particular story," Byrne said in an interview.

"So it became in the public interest to actually get this information out to assure people that the integrity of the food system was in no way compromised."

Asked how it wasn't in the public interest before the story came out, Byrne said: "There was no indication that there was a story there to begin with, in the sense that there were interests — 29 individual dairy farmers — who operate a significant business. Their interests, I guess, were taken into consideration here."

He added that "inferences or suppositions" that weren't in the original story or briefing notes resulted in suggestions there could be problems with the food system, which made in it the public interest to release the records.