CFIA Food Fraud Annual Report 2024-2025 is out

The Food Fraud Annual Report 2024–2025, published by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), presents the food fraud surveillance and enforcement activities carried out in Canada between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, in cooperation with Health Canada and under the Food Policy for Canada.

During the reporting period, the CFIA analysed 886 samples, of which 246 were collected as part of market monitoring and 640 during targeted inspection activities. It also conducted 362 labelling checks, including net quantity verifications, and published 81 informational posts on social media, which received a total of 223,309 views.

The controls showed improved compliance for grated hard cheese. Olive oil recorded the lowest authenticity rate, while the highest rates were found for fish, fruit juices, maple syrup and meat. The main labelling irregularities concerned grated cheese, fish products and higher-value oils.

Measures taken by the CFIA through its Standard Regulatory Response Process prevented more than 150,000 kg of non-compliant food from being marketed and included seizure, destruction, removal from the Canadian market and relabelling.

The report provides three examples of the potential economic harm caused to consumers by food misrepresentation.

In the first case, a lower-value fish was sold as Patagonian toothfish, at a price premium of approximately CAD 19/kg.

The second example concerns a 2 kg package of beef that was underweight by 1%, corresponding to 20 g. The resulting loss to the consumer would be CAD 0.60 per package and could amount to CAD 160,000 per year nationwide.

Finally, in the case of grated Parmesan cheese, the addition of cellulose as an anti-caking agent at a level 0.5% above the permitted limit would result in part of the cheese being replaced with a lower-value ingredient.

The CFIA estimates a loss of CAD 0.05 per 200 g package, equivalent to approximately CAD 190,850 per year across the Canadian market.