As U.S. tariffs drive more shoppers to Canadian products, food brands and grocers are racing to slap a maple leaf on anything they can.
Driving the news: Six companies were caught breaking Canada’s country-of-origin labelling rules in three months this year, per the Globe and Mail. Over that span, there was an eight-fold increase in consumer complaints about mislabelled, or “maple-washed” products.
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Walmart Canada briefly took down “Made in Canada” labels from its website and app after discovering incorrect labelling on some items.
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Some experts argue that grocers can be intentionally vague with labels to make products appear more Canadian.
Catch-up: Label requirements have a lot of nuance. The "Product of Canada" label requires labour, processing, and at least 98% of a product's ingredients to be Canadian. However, “Made in Canada” has a 51% minimum, and other labels are even more lenient.
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Since Sobeys is Canadian, most of its in-house Compliments brand products are given a maple leaf sticker, even if the product was simply imported by the grocer.
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A CBC Marketplace investigation found Loblaws labelled 35% of its products online as “Prepared in Canada” — a broad label that could only require that a jug of U.S. orange juice be bottled in Canada, for example.
Why it matters: There’s nowhere that the Buy Canadian movement is more relevant than the grocery store. For those who are trying to support local companies — and are paying up to do it — the Canadian-made label can determine what items get placed in the cart.—LA