An online video making the rounds on social media claims to show a mouse nibbling on a salmon fillet inside a meat counter at the Farm Boy grocery store in Barrie’s south end on Saturday afternoon.
The video has been viewed thousands of times and re-shared across several social-media platforms.
The original poster of the video, a Reddit user with the account name Itchy_Pianist_5192, uploaded the phone video on Feb. 8, which shows a deer mouse nibbling away on the cut of fish at the Bryne Drive location, just off Mapleview Drive West.
“Right away, (it) was reported,” the poster of the video told Village Media on Monday via the Reddit website.
They said the store acknowledged their complaint.
“Then (we) thought (we) might want to warn people who specifically might have bought anything from the meat counter,” they added, when asked about the online post.
In a statement from Farm Boy emailed to Village Media on Monday, by a customer care representative signed only as Michelle, the company said they are “committed to upholding the highest standards of food safety and cleanliness.
“We take this matter very seriously and have already taken immediate action, including removing and discarding all affected products, conducting a thorough sanitation of the area and reinforcing our pest-control measures with outside pest-control management," the rep added.
Tony Makrostergios, a food safety program manager with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, said that “the board of health shall determine the appropriate response required and act on food-related complaints and reports within 24 hours of notification of the complaint or report.”
Makrostergios said a public health inspector will initiate a risk assessment to determine the severity or validity of the complaint.
“This will determine the appropriate course of action required within 24 hours," he added.
When asked if there was a complaint lodged in this particular case or if the health unit became aware of an incident by other means, Makrostergios said complaints that are investigated by the local health unit related to food safety are disclosed on their inspection website.
“Depending on the nature of the complaint, whether formal or informal, (it) is vetted and risk-assessed by our inspection team,” he said.
At the time of publication, no information specific to this incident or possible inspection was available on the health unit's inspection website.
Below is the full video which was posted online: