OWNERS of Great Western business Green Eggs are concerned their business could go under after being linked to a salmonella outbreak.
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Green Eggs owner Alan Green said he and his wife Shelley were considering their options.
The Department of Health has told the business to wash all of its eggs.
The business’s grading floor is not equipped to wash eggs and has been closed.
Five staff who worked on the grading floor were stood down.
Mr Green said importing an egg-washing machine would cost tens of thousands of dollars, especially if it had to be delivered express by air freight.
Trucking eggs to Melbourne had also been a significant logistical and financial impost on the business.
Mr Green said Green Eggs staff left Great Western about 5am on Tuesday with a truckload of eggs, bound for an accredited egg washing, grading and packing site in Melbourne.
A second load left Great Western yesterday morning.
Mr Green said the number of eggs going into the market place had fallen significantly.
“We believe we have complied with all the requirements of the Health Department,” he said.
But he said the extra health and safety measures had not restored consumer confidence.
“We’ve had to go around picking up an enormous number of eggs that were all fine,” he said.
“Our customers have to have confidence our eggs are not going to make them ill, particularly children and the elderly.
“A number of council health officers were saying there was a recall on Green Eggs; there was never such a thing.”
He said the Health Department continued to advise all Green Eggs must be safely handled and thoroughly cooked before consumption, in line with the chief health officer’s health alert, until further notice.
Mr Green said he spent much of yesterday calling the department, trying to find out whether that advice was likely to change, given that Green Eggs were now being washed.
“We’re looking for the Health Department that has condemned us to come out and say these people are complying with their requirements,” he said.