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P.E.I. potato tampering reward climbs to $500K

P.E.I. potato tampering leads off question period
P.E.I. potato tampering leads off question period

Finding the culprit who stuck needles into P.E.I. potatoes is proving to be as challenging as finding a needle in a haystack.

A team of investigators with the Prince Edward Island RCMP is currently following a slew of tips concerning the tampering of potatoes in the tiny province.

Last October, police received a complaint from a French fry processing plantthat had found sewing needles lodged in some of the potatoes. Workers there were able to contain the contaminated product before it left the plant.

The next day, RCMP received another complaint, this time from someone who’d found a tampered potato that had been bought at a grocery store.

That’s when officials alerted the public with their safety concerns. Since then, other Atlantic provinces have found tampered potatoes, which trace back to P.E.I.

"The investigation hasn’t stopped; it’s been ongoing,” Sgt. Leanne Butler with the P.E.I. RCMP told Yahoo Canada News. “It’s a priority to solve this matter.”

Complaints received in recent months are believed to be from the same crop of potatoes as the ones found last fall. The potatoes are harvested and then put into storage facilities, which can keep for several months.

Several farmers reached by Yahoo Canada News declined to speak, referring requests to the Prince Edward Island Potato Board, which was not immediately available for comment.

“None of the (tampering) has been from the new 2015 stock,” Butler says.

The potato board initially offered a $100,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest. However, as of last week, that bounty has been upped to $500,000.

If a culprit isn’t caught by Aug. 15, the reward will go back to $100,000. As one published report notes, the reward increase is intended to catch the suspect or suspects before the main harvesting season starts again in the fall.

Potatoes are one of P.E.I.’s biggest industries. They’re said to contribute over a billion dollars to the province’s economy every year.

“The tampering issue is degrading the integrity of the industry, devaluing the product, so we’re trying to solve what happened,” says Butler.

So far, there have been no suspects or arrests.

“We’re trying to keep all avenues of our investigation open, so we haven’t profiled or said who we believe has done this,” she says. “We’d like the public to keep an open mind and if they have any information on suspicious activities, to give us a call.”

P.E.I. potato growers and packers have since invested in the installation of “foreign material detection equipment,” which is expected to cost more than $5 million — part of which is coming from the federal government.

Farms that were affected by food tampering have already lost a significant amount of money from destroyed product, market disruption and lost productivity.

Although famers will start harvesting small potatoes in the coming months, the main harvest begins in the fall.

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