With Delissio frozen pizza nearing its end, many brand fans have rushed to grocery store shelves to get some… but a customer at an IGA in Montreal was in for a very nasty surprise.
• Also read: It’s the end for the Delissio pizza
Jason Strayer went to an IGA grocery store in the Ville-Émard neighborhood of Montreal on Friday morning.
Mr. Strayer does his usual shopping and decides to buy a Delissio pizza from the freezer.
Not owning a car, he pays a $5 fee to have his groceries delivered in just over an hour.
Contacted by TVANouvelles.ca, he claims to have quickly placed the pizza in his freezer.
“The pizza stayed in the freezer overnight. […] Also, when it was delivered outside, it was pretty ‘frette’!’ he says.
Pizza filled with mold
The next day, Jason unpacks the product for the first time and realizes something is wrong.
“There were two layers of mold, one gray and one brown. […] It takes several days in the heat for the mold to develop in this way, and the fact that there are several colors suggests that there have been several breaks in the cold chain… never mind, it doesn’t need to much to cause severe food poisoning,” he said.
He immediately contacted the IGA staff on Saturday evening to draw their attention to the problem. Initially, he was told, “Ah, okay, sorry. Please inform us.”
The man insisted on getting a better explanation from them. The employee simply informed him that his case would be processed by a branch manager on Monday.
“The cold chain has been severely broken on this product. It poses a public health risk. They have to at least take the ‘batch’ of products out of the fridge, that doesn’t make sense,” pounded the client, asking if a manager was available for more information.
However, the employee wrote down his contact details.
The Montreal native plans to contact the Quebec Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) and the City of Montreal on Monday to discuss his case.
Not an isolated case?
The TVANouvelles.ca team contacted the grocery store this morning to discuss the case of Jason Strayer, who bought a moldy pizza.
The employee told us about the case of another customer who had experienced a similar situation yesterday.
He would have let himself be represented at the IGA in order to get another one in return… Surprise: the second one was also moldy.
When asked about the extent of the problem, the woman went back into the freezer aisle during the call to see if the other Delissio pizzas were rotten.
To his surprise, several other pizzas were moldy, while pizzas from other brands were mold-free.
As a preventive measure, the IGA employee would have removed all Delissio-branded products from the grocery store at 6675 Monk Boulevard.
Keep in mind that within six months, several Nestlé Canada products will no longer be available in Canada.