Pizza pouches contained metal shards: city man

June 2, 2006
Belleville Intelligencer
Derek Baldwin

Calvin Godfrey says his gums are still a little sore after he bit into a No Name brand pizza pouch product last week and a tiny piece of metal lodged between his teeth.

On a second attempt to eat another of the hot and gooey pouches, he said he spotted an additional piece of metal in the product.

He promptly called the toll-free customer line and complained to a Loblaw representative.

The product Godfrey claims contained small shards of metal is called No Name, 12 Baked Pizza Pouches with Pepperoni and Mozarella Cheese. The box says the food products were prepared for Loblaw.

He purchased the food at Belleville No Frills grocery store on Bell Boulevard in mid May. Both boxes of the pizza pouches have the batch number (bar code number) 6038312680.

When Godfrey called the Loblaw phone line, he said the representative informed him "'they had metal detectors at the end of the production line.' I told them, it must have been shut off."

Jennifer Rolls, an official with George Weston Ltd. in Toronto, the parent company of Loblaw, was cited as telling The Intelligencer Thursday the company is aware of the situation with Godfrey, adding, "We have spoken to the customer. We do have a quality control department and we treat these incidents very seriously as quality is one of our top priorities."

Rolls said the company "is investigating the matter."