Farmers Dairy milk pulled from shelves for 'off-taste flavour'

Farmers Dairy has announced it's pulling several milk products from shelves in Atlantic Canada after customers reported a chemical taste.

"This withdrawal is only preventive and there is no health risk associated with consuming these products," the company said in a statement posted to its Facebook page Saturday.

Several products are listed as being affected, including two per cent milk, one per cent milk, chocolate milk and 3.25 per cent milk. The company said it's "isolated to a brief production period, and no reported events were logged for subsequent production days."

This impacts products sold in Nova Scotia, P.E.I., New Brunswick and buttermilk sold in Newfoundland.

Farmers Dairy didn't provide details in its statement as to why the milk tasted off.

Tastes like chemicals

Brian Murphy, who lives in the Halifax neighbourhood of Clayton Park and calls himself a "chocolate connoisseur," bought a carton of chocolate milk on Wednesday at a Sobeys. He said he drank half the bottle before realizing something wasn't right.

"When you drank it, it wasn't too bad. But it left like a Javex taste in your mouth," he said.

Later in the week, he returned the remainder to Sobeys. He almost bought a carton of Farmers Dairy white milk instead, but an employee approached him to let him know the product was being recalled.

Company apologizes

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency doesn't include the Farmers Dairy products on the list of recalls on its website.

In a statement, the agency said it's working with Farmers Dairy to conduct a food safety investigation, but it didn't have any additional information about the investigation or complaints at this time.

Farmers Dairy is owned by Quebec-based Agropur Cooperative, Canada's largest dairy producer, which also recently bought Truro's Scotsburn.

"We're sorry for any inconvenience this situation may have caused you and thank you in advance for your co-operation," the company said in its online statement.

Customers can return any products listed on its Facebook page to their local grocery stores for a full refund or contact the company at 1-800-501-1150.