# Food Import Regulations Need An Overhaul



## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

Although I am no longer an OFA member, I served as a director on the local board for a term and I agree with everything that was said here. I do not support Bette Jean or beleive that she is the approiate person to be in the position that she is in, but her "people" must have pulled her proper strings to get her to make this announcement. Now we just have to see if anything comes out of it...

Food Import Regulations Need An Overhaul

By Bette Jean Crews
President
Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Some of the most important regulations in place in Canada and Ontario govern the food we eat. Food production, inspection and processing regulations are enforced to ensure the safety and nutrition of our food, something consumers trust and rely on. However, recent media report uncovered the need to update and step up enforcement of some of Canada's food and inspection regulations.

Newly released statistics - contained in the Postmedia News report - show that a large majority of imported foods tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in the last three years contained inaccurate nutritional information, prohibited ingredients or misleading health claims. The CFIA targets a broad range of imported foods for compliance testing, and the report stated the results of testing showed a consistently high percentage of foods with labeling problems. This means many of the foods tested were "non-compliant for quality" or were mislabeled.

In fact, 84 per cent of imported food samples tested by the CFIA in 2010 and 2011 were found noncompliant - including noncompliant nutritional claims, non-permitted health claims, the presence of a prohibited ingredient or did not meet the declared grade.

This poor performance is simply not permitted with Canadian food producers and processors. Non compliance by Canadian producers and processors results in penalties, recalls, loss of product or even loss of businesses. And yet, we are told to compete against imports that do not comply with what our consumers expect and rely on. These results are alarming and simply unacceptable.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) has been actively advocating for regulatory modernization in the agri-food industry, including consistent regulation of imported products. The high rate of non-compliant imported food is an example of a regulatory system that has totally lost its focus and radically needs to be repaired. Consumers are being misled, their health is at risk and our own agri-food industry is forced into a competitive disadvantage.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture represents 37,000 farm families across Ontario, but speaks for every consumer in our province when we ask for regulatory modernization on issues like food imports. Regulatory reform, or modernization, is one of the OFA's key issues and we continually address regulations that are outdated or create unnecessary restrictions and time delays for farmers and the agri-food industry. So, next time you are in the grocery store or farmer's market, support Ontario, play it safe and buy local.


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## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

That doesn't surprise me any. Is there any information on the which countries are the worst violators?


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

I always was led to believe that South American meat products are produced under significantly lesser welfare standards than Ontario farmers have to endure.
Thats not to say that these standards are all misplaced but lets stop some of this ambiguous labelling that leads the consumer to believe they are comparing apples to apples when looking at cheap imported versus local produce. ie labelled "Produce of Canada" when the only thing Canadian is the packaging rather than the product!


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