A bag of chips with a bilingual label in a Loblaws: very normal. A bag of chips with a bilingual label in a raided Indian warehouse: very alarming.
What happened: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) opened an investigation into an operation in India that was illegally relabelling packaged food products from companies like PepsiCo and Nestlé. There is concern some of these products may have been on their way to Canada after Reuters found an English-French label on a bag of chips.
While the CFIA said there’s no evidence at this time the products are in Canada, it’s alarming as the labels had changed nutritional info and expiry dates, and Indian officials say the relabelled goods were expired or almost expired.
Catch-up: The bag in question was discovered in a raid carried out by authorities in Mumbai last week. There has been a widespread crackdown this year by Indian regulators against food safety violations, sparked by new leadership and campaigning from social media users.
Probes have mostly focused on restaurants after years of widespread complaints about kitchen health code violations, though they have also targeted sketchy food distributors. Since April, food regulators have conducted more than 24,000 raids.
Why it matters: The interconnectedness of global food supply chains means that food safety in other countries can affect food safety here. India’s crackdown could indirectly help some Canadian consumers, too.—QH
