Food fraud in Canada on the rise
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has recently released its annual report on food fraud in Canada, shedding light on a concerning trend.
While this report often goes unnoticed, it is crucial for the federal agency to assess the authenticity of the food available in our country. In its surveillance efforts, the CFIA focused on inspecting, sampling, and testing various food products, including fish, honey, meat, olive oil, other expensive oils, and spices.
These targeted monitoring activities were carried out in diverse food establishments, encompassing importers, domestic processors, and retailers. However, it is important to note that the report excludes the food service sector, despite its significant issues with food fraud.
In this year’s report, the CFIA collected and analyzed 844 samples specifically targeted to detect misleading representation. The analysis revealed the following percentages of satisfactory samples (on non-fraudulent): fish (92.7%, compared to 91.2% in the previous year), honey (77.5%, compared to 88.5% in the previous year), meat (99.1%, no results available from the previous year), olive oil (86.9%, compared to 87.8% in the previous year), other expensive oils (i.e. almond oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, grapeseed oil, hazelnut oil, mustard seed oil and sesame seed oil) (64.3%, compared to 66.2% in the previous year), and spices (90.8%, compared to 92.1% in the previous year).
