Food fraud remains a major concern in Canada, according to a new report – a problem that runs across grocery store aisles, where, in the case of some products, up to one-third of items are mislabelled.
The report from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Thursday offers, for the first time, a comprehensive look at the problem of food fraud in the country. It paints a picture of a complicated and ever-shifting problem – one that can be found across the food supply, and from coast to coast.
From 2020 to 2021, the CFIA undertook a widespread investigation of the five product categories most commonly known for mislabelling: olive oil, honey, spices, fish and “other expensive oils.”
Of the “expensive oils” tested – sesame, coconut, avocado and grapeseed oil, both imported and from domestic producers – 33 per cent were found non-compliant. The report does not specify the nature of the non-compliance, nor whether they were able to assess the actual content of the samples. It does state that expensive oils “are at risk of substitution and dilution with lower quality oils.”
“Food fraud is a tactic that deceives consumers and is unfair to our agriculture and agri-food producers,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie Claude-Bibeau said in a statement. She pointed to the government’s 2019 promise to spend $24-million over five years to fight the problem.
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