The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has released its Food Fraud Annual Report for 2021–2022, which summarizes the activities CFIA conducted throughout the year to prevent, detect, and deter food fraud. Food fraud is a priority under the Food Policy for Canada

Work CFIA completed in 2021–2022 as part of its food fraud initiative includes: 

• Monitoring ongoing and emerging risks, and planning mitigation activities
• Promoting awareness and educating consumers via an advertising campaign and other work
• Working with international counterparts to share relevant information and best practices
• Advancing research and method development to detect food fraud
• Targeting surveillance on higher-risk commodities, and taking control and enforcement actions in cases of non-compliance

Surveillance during 2021–2022 period included inspecting, sampling, and testing for authenticity and misrepresentation of fish, honey, meat, olive oil, other valuable oils, and spices. CFIA conducted targeted surveillance on these commodities at different types of food establishments, including importers, domestic processors, and retailers. In total, CFIA collected 844 targeted samples to detect specific types of misrepresentation. The percentages of analyzed samples found to be compliant are: 

• Fish: 92.7 percent
• Honey: 77.5 percent
• Meat: 99.1 percent
• Olive oil: 86.9 percent
• Other valuable oils: 64.3 percent
• Spices: 90.8 percent.

In cases of non-compliance, CFIA took control actions and enforcement actions where warranted, guided by the Standard Regulatory Response Process. Such actions included removing products from the Canadian market, detention, destruction, or relabeling.