Bothwell Cheese has resumed production almost a month after a fire shuttered the operation.
“Thanks to the swift and coordinated efforts of our team, the dedication of Bothwell Cheese employees, and the support of local community partners, we are thrilled to announce that production has resumed at Bothwell Cheese,” said Suzanna Dalrymple, president and CEO of Gay Lea Foods, in a news release today.
A fire broke out in the facility on June 1. No one was injured, but the area of the plant that processes whey, a cheesemaking byproduct, was damaged “extensively”, Gay Lea Foods said.
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On June 3 the warehouse was open and filling orders, but the rest of the plant and its storefront were closed, Mike Langdon, Gay Lea’s vice president of corporate and co-operative affairs said.
After cleaning and inspection, packaging resumed on June 10, the news release said. The plant began operating “at close to full capacity” yesterday.
“The full re-opening depended in part on local farmers, who stepped up to provide an alternate solution for whey disposal,” it added.
This alternate solution involved discarding whey into farms’ manure storage lagoons, a move that Gay Lea Foods said was approved by the province.
