Goat cheese recalled by Ran-Cher Acres

Aylesford’s Ran-Cher Acres dairy goat farm is voluntary recalling all of its goat cheese flavours due to possible salmonella contamination.

Randy Hiltz, co-owner of Ran-Cher Acres, said they heard about the situation on Monday and immediately began recalling the product.

“We’ve got everything that was on the shelf off,” he said.

The farm sends samples of its products to a lab for testing every month. The sample of goat cheese sent out on Oct. 17 tested positive for salmonella.

Food contaminated by salmonella may not appear spoiled, yet it can still cause sickness, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website.

Children, pregnant women and the elderly are at a higher risk and may contract serious infections from salmonella due to lower immune systems. Healthy people may experience symptoms such as fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps and diarrhea.

Ran-Cher Acres has been producing cheese for over 30 years. Hiltz said this is the first time the company has had a contamination issue and there is no need to change its cheese production process.

“It may have been just a matter of poor sampling,” said Hiltz.

Hiltz said he’s heard from only two customers who had cheese from the suspect batch, as the products had only been on sale for about two weeks. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency website says those who bought contaminated products should throw it out or return it to the retailer.

Ran-Cher Acres sells its products at the Lunenburg Farmers’ Market and the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market.