Ontario man says he found rocks in President's Choice frozen berries and was offered $300 in points if he kept quiet

The Vandewater family, left, one of the shards found, right. (Provided by Jordan Vandewater)

TORONTO -

An Ontario man who says there were rocks in a bag of frozen President’s Choice berries he purchased was offered $300 in compensation if he stayed quiet about what happened, a document shows.

Oshawa, Ont. resident Jordan Vandewater said that he and his wife were preparing smoothies for their children last month when they found a foreign object in one of their children’s bowls.

“My wife went into the freezer, grabbed a brand new bag of frozen PC [fruit], as she always does when my kids want these frozen blended smoothies,” Vandewater told CTV News Toronto on Friday. “She poured half the bag into the blender.”

He says his wife blended the mixture, served the kids their fruit smoothies in a bowl and then heard one of her children ask, “Mommy, what is this?”

When her child handed her the small object, Vandewater says his wife first thought it might have been a piece of ice and tried melting it under warm water. When the object didn’t melt, Vandewater says she realized it was a rock.

“Right away, my wife put two-and-two together and thought ‘Oh my god, if this was in the raspberries and I put them in the blender and I blended it, well what happens when you blend stuff? It blasts apart,'" he said.

The Vandewaters said they strained the smoothie and found four sharp shards of rocks in the mixture.

Provided by Jordan Vandewater

“They're like little razor blades,” he said. “We didn't know if [the children] in fact swallowed any or not, but it's a great possibility one of them could have.”

Vandewater says his family contacted a doctor, who told them to monitor their children for signs of pain or internal bleeding.

“Thankfully, over the weekend of closely monitoring them, there were no issues,” he said. “But I'd be lying to you if I told you my wife and I got an hour of sleep over that weekend.”

Vandewater says he reported the issue to President’s Choice, who he says confirmed that the object was indeed a rock.

Provided by Jordan Vandewater.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Loblaws told CTV News Toronto that “on rare occasions, when fruits like fresh raspberries are harvested from fields, elements of nature, like a rock, can make their way into our frozen products.”

“Food safety in the products we sell to Canadians is something we take very seriously and we have a number of checks in place to reduce the risk of this type of incident from occurring,” the company said.

In response to Vandewater’s complaint, President’s Choice offered the family 250,000 PC Optimum points, worth approximately $250, as compensation for damage done to the family's blender.

However, the offer was conditional upon Vandewater signing an agreement stating that he would keep the matter confidential.

“I agree to keep the terms of this settlement confidential and not to discuss the same with any party except my legal and financial advisors nor to discuss that a claim was made,” legal documents viewed by CTV News Toronto show.

Vandewater said he called the company back to reject the offer because it was "not worth not rectifying this.”

In response, he says President’s Choice offered him an additional 50,000 PC Optimum points, worth $300, but underlined that the agreement about keeping the matter confidential would still need to be signed.

Vandewater once again declined and has not accepted any compensation.

“It doesn't sit well with me,” he said. “I'd rather have nothing and have what happened distributed out there so that people can be aware of what they could potentially be feeding to themselves or their kids.”

“There's no money in the world worth it to me.”