Dear Editor, I would like to highlight two recent instances of concern.

1. In late December I purchased locally made pork sausages from my usual supplier of five years plus. During this time, I have purchased over 350kg of this product and have never been disappointed. Somehow, I fear that there was some contamination in the sausage meat packed late December given the side effects suffered by my usual enthusiastic consumers. When the subject was raised with staff at the store concerned the comment was made that ‘yes there might have been a problem’ and there was none of the pork sausage product currently available for sale. Not good.
2. Last week I purchased Chinese frozen pumpkin from the other major food outlet. At the time no fresh product was available so I substituted frozen to complete my dish and this with the other items brought the total cost to around $60. At initial inspection the pumpkin seemed a little suspect however I pressed on to assemble and bake the dish. Fortunately, only the chef sampled the finished dish and with disastrous results. 

My questions are – has anyone else had a problem with these two products? Are the product managers at our two largest food retailers aware of these issues?

Do they care?

Justa

(Name and address supplied)