Prime Time Crime
Canadian Food Industry
OTTAWA - There could be hundreds of food and beverage products boosted with vitamins and minerals on shelves across the country with unchecked health claims and no nutritional fact boxes - and Health Canada is now proposing to legalize the loophole that has allowed the food industry to get fortified snacks and drinks to market faster. (CanWest)
OTTAWA - The safety of drinking water is something most Canadians take for granted, but for those living on First Nations reserves there are no laws and regulations to ensure their water is safe. (Edmonton Journal)
Agricultural officials on PEI are trying to determine how many tonnes of wheat were dumped in the mistaken belief it was not fit for human consumption. (CBC)
Still fishy at the fish counter
Consumer, beware: When you're buying fish, you may not get what you pay for. About a quarter of 500 fish samples turned out to be misidentified or mislabelled. They were genetically tested and matched using the world-famous Barcode of Life DNA database at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: Raw deal Canadian Barcode of Life Fishy labelling Something's often fishy Something's fishy Food agency to investigate
NORTH BAY - A $50M class-action lawsuit has commenced against the company that owns the Harvey's brand over an E. coli outbreak linked to a Harvey's restaurant in North Bay, Ont. (CanWest)
VANCOUVER - Raw dairy enthusiasts are challenging lab results by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), saying samples of unpasteurized milk (raw milk) deemed dangerous by the agency does not prove the product is unfit for consumption. (CTV)
PREVIOUS: Contempt ruling Farmer asks for maximum sentence Real milk in Canada Milk raid compared to drug bust Hunger-striking farmer protests raw milk ban Dairy farmers of Canada Regulators Milk regulators go after co-op
VICTORIA - Last fall, new regulations came into being forcing poultry farmers to process their livestock through government-licenced inspection plants before meat could be sold to the public. (Victoria Times Colonist)
UXBRIDGE - An Uxbridge farmer who buried 70,000 car tires on his land is under investigation by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority - almost a decade after the province gave him permission to do so. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: Buried tires fuel anger
EDMONTON - Edmonton-area farms are the epicentre of a new and devastating outbreak threatening Alberta's $3.2-billion canola industry, authorities say. Provincial and county governments are trying to contain the rapidly spreading and incurable soil-borne disease called clubroot. (Edmonton Journal)
OTTAWA - Health Canada will delay regulation of trans fats in Canadian food products for at least two years, calling instead for industry to voluntarily limit use of the heart-clogging compounds. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: CHR to take action on trans fats Trans fat lawsuit based on junk science 10 top junk science moments of 2006 CHR boss: Health care not in crisis
Calgary's police chief slammed the "idiots" behind a rash of food tampering in the city, as two locations of the Real Canadian Superstore became the latest targets. There have now been a total of 11 food-tampering cases at nine different grocery stores across the city since January. (CBC) MORE: Grocery crimes tough to crack
OTTAWA - Health Canada is proposing an unorthodox way of combatting a food ingredient suspected in some cancers: It wants to let manufacturers put small amounts of a cancer-fighting drug into potato chips and similar foods to curb production of the harmful chemical. (National Post)
VANCOUVER - Low-cost bulk wines from places like California and South Africa are being sold in government liquor stores as BC wines, raising a storm of protest among winemakers and wine lovers who say the imposters are damaging the reputation of this province’s industry. (Vancouver Sun) COMMENT: Great Canadian wine fraud
New research published by World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) shows that a large number of food items sold in Canada contain significantly more sodium than the very same products sold in other countries - in some cases more than twice the daily maximum limit for an adult in a single meal. (CTV)
FDA inspection system outdated
WASHINGTON - The US Food and Drug Administration's system that monitors inspections of drug manufacturing plants worldwide is outdated and inaccurate, according to a government report released on Wednesday. (Reuters) REPORT: GAO drug safety
OTTAWA - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to consume no-name brand all-purpose flour because the product may contain excessively high levels of folic acid, iron, niacin, riboflavin and thiamine. (CanWest)
OTTAWA - Yet another potential E. coli contamination stung North America's produce sector Monday morning, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued an official public warning about Dole brand Hearts Delight lettuce salad. (CityNews)
OTTAWA - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning that some bottles of Stella Artois beer may have been tampered with. The agency says it knows of six bottles into which someone added concentrated alcohol. There are some reported cases of people being sickened after drinking the contaminated beer. (CanWest) PREVIOUS: CFIA warning on Chili Canned meat recall expanded Castleberry's Food Co. Salmonella alert Health Canada to crack down on fake pills
Police say recalled chocolate was stolen
TORONTO - Police have arrested two men they allege stole recalled Hershey's chocolates that were intended for disposal but ended up in stores. (CP) PREVIOUS: Arrest leads to warning about tainted Chocolates in stores Salmonella scare sparks Hershey recall Canadian food inspection agency hazard alert
Canned tuna exceeds guidelines on mercury
OTTAWA - Following a CBC investigation that found mercury levels above the allowed limit, Health Canada issued new consumption guidelines on Monday for canned albacore tuna for women and children. (CBC)
A growing number of food companies are pumping nutrients into their packaged products to increase the health benefits to consumers, but Canadians aren't allowed to know what many of those advantages are. (CanWest) PREVIOUS: Functional food
Canadian consumers can likely expect an avalanche of food recalls after an ingredient used in thousands of processed foods was found to be contaminated with salmonella, government investigators said. (CanWest)
OTTAWA - Dow Agrosciences insists Quebec's province-wide ban on the residential use of weed-killing chemicals breaches legal protections owed by Canada to US investors under the NAFTA. The Dow claim is the latest in a long string of disputes to arise under Chapter 11 of the NAFTA - a legal back channel which permits foreign investors to detour around local courts and sue the federal government before an international tribunal. (Embassy)
Critics slam US chemical report
Plastics industry behind FDA research
Feds to declare bisphenol A toxic
Plastic bottle chemical may be harmful
OTTAWA - A void of leadership, inadequate decision-making, an insufficient focus on food safety and a lack of planning and communication all contributed to the listeriosis outbreak last summer and the poor handling of it by industry and government officials. (CanWest)
2008 Canadian listeriosis outbreak
Canadian food inspection agency
Outbreak points at a broken system
Listeriosis investigative review
Listeria found in nursing homes, hospitals
Reporting rule dropped before crisis
Inspection agency admits errors
Province not given full story in outbreak
Focus on how firms manage liability
Food industry bitten by its lobbying success
Vancouver residents may struggle to reduce their water consumption by installing low-flow toilets and letting their lawns go brown in summer. But those individual initiatives amount to a mere trickle against the city's thirstiest corporations and institutions. (Vancouver Sun)
SASKATOON - Saskatchewan's agriculture minister says plans to provide pork to the province's food banks from animals culled under a national cull breeding swine program is a clear example of turning a negative into a positive. (FarmScape)
Canadian slaughtered pigs used for pet food
Food banks benefit from pork cull
Hog cull aid falls short: marketing board
BC must make information public
VICTORIA - The province must make public information it gathers on the health of farmed fish, says a ruling from the Office of the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner. (Victoria Times Colonist)
Numbers crash as bust replaces bounty
Parasites driving wild salmon to extinction
Fishing money not misspent: DFO
Sustainable fish stocks in the NW Atlantic
Former judge slams Fisheries funding
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Fraser River sockeye fishery in crisis: report
BC loses salmon farm jurisdiction
2009 BCSC 136 .pdf
Water rights battle hits court
CALGARY - The first legal challenge of the province's southern water limits will surface in a Calgary courtroom as a new report warns Alberta's scarcity is a wake-up call to the rest of Canada. (Calgary Herald)
City comes clean over river's toilet treatment
Cities fouling Great Lakes with raw sewage
Great Lakes chemical pollution
1 in 3 say water isn't safe to drink
Crisis feared as water supplies dry up
'Water fight' takes on new meaning in stores
Province won't release drinking-water report
Water still a problem on 76 reserves
Aboriginal Waters: A Slow Boil
Water bottlers still draining Ontario for free
Farmer wins case over tainted water
CTV study finds flame retardants in many foods
CTV and The Globe and Mail decided to find out just how bad the problem is and what it means for our health. The flame retardants are called PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, a class of about 25 industrial chemicals that are sprayed on textiles, plastics and electronics to prevent or slow the rate at which they will ignite. (CTV)
CURITIBA, Brazil - On March 24, Canada's continued efforts to undermine and eventually eliminate the ban on so-called terminator seed technology suffered a severe setback. Terminator technology refers to seed genetically modified to produce sterile seeds, which cannot be planted. (The Tyee)
Ban on Terminator Seeds stands despite Canadian Government Stance
Experts warn spinach flare-up sign of bigger problem
OTTAWA - The spreading E. coli outbreak that prompted the federal government to warn Canadians not to eat US spinach is the symptom of widespread problems in the food system and raises serious questions about the increasing prevalence of fresh produce contaminated by bacteria, warn food experts. (CanWest)
Weak links in Canada's food supply chain
Canada widens spinach warnings
Lettuce link probed in e-coli outbreaks
Tainted eateries get many chances
E. coli exposes weakness in food chain
Food safety offences shut 48 city eateries
EDMONTON - A six-year-old dairy cow from Alberta was confirmed to have mad cow disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said. (Edmonton Journal)
USDA to investigate after 3rd mad cow found
Mad cow disease case confirmed
Confirmed mad cow in mature Alberta bull
Mad cow disease confirmed in BC
BC's first ever mad cow infection
Canada poured millions into US Timber biz
Harper successful where many have failed
Softwood deal 'good, not perfect'
Forestry & Forest Products Lobbying
Coalition for fair lumber imports
US corn hit with tariff in trade war
Alberta government declares emergency
Slow BSE testing could keep borders closed
World Trade talks end in agreement
US producers buying cheap Canadian cattle
Meat packers to testify on high beef prices
Report on the Alberta government's BSE-related assistance programs
The largest fleet of self-unloading vessels in the world.
REGINA - A lawsuit against the federal government for malicious prosecution has been filed by a group of farmers who spent the last ten years in court until some had their convictions of illegally exporting grain to the U.S. overturned last spring. (Leader Post) PREVIOUS: Farmers claim victory over wheat board Canadian Wheat Board (CWB)
The meat Packers:
Cargill - is the world's largest privately owned corporation and it is also the worlds largest private grain company controlling over ¼ of the worlds grain production.
A subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc
Tyson foods sued for race bias
Indictment to smuggle illegal aliens