The Bothwell cheese plant is back in operation after a contamination scare just before Christmas. 3,000 packages of shredded cheese were recalled December 19th due to possible Listeria contamination. Mike Raftis, Director of Sales and Marketing, says they believe the problem was a new piece of equipment which has since been removed. He adds they have completely sanitized the factory.

"We were shut down for an entire week for the majority of our plant. Our production area, where we actually make the cheese, was shut down for two days and then we resumed production. The remaining areas of the plant were completely shut down and basically what we were doing is a top down cleaning and sanitization and inspection of our entire facility including walls and ceilings. Every piece of equipment, everything was completely cleaned, inspected and sanitized. We brought in a third party auditor that specializes in food safety and quality assurance. No stone has been left unturned."

Raftis adds they have revised their protocol for installing new equipment to prevent this from happening again.

"This has given us an opportunity to really inspect our processes, to evaluate where things may have gone wrong and to make the necessary improvements. As we look at new equipment and how it's installed and cleaned, there's definitely a process to it that needs to be followed and adhered to. So it's definitely an area that we're going to improve upon and do better in the future."

He notes Christmas is their busiest time of the year so the shutdown came at the worst possible time. Raftis adds, while no one wants to go through a scare like this, it has made them better.

"We're looking at absolutely everything from our production floor to our lunch room to our broom closet, everything is being looked at so we're definitely going to come out of this a lot stronger and be able to earn back the trust of our consumers."