Driscoll’s berries case raises questions about Canada’s food safety watchdog

Montreal resident Thomas Vares says he won’t buy any Driscoll’s produce anymore, after allegations that millions of its berries were sent between 2022 and 2024 from the United States to Canada with non-compliant levels of chemical residues.

Vares says he was shocked to see his local grocer stacked with the containers  and complained to the store — but he would have also liked for the government to better inform the public.

“I was shocked to begin with because I had full confidence in our government testing. All of the foods and fruits and vegetables that we buy at the store. So I expected that there were no issues,” he said.

When asked, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed to CBC News it conducted several inspections on Driscoll’s berries in the country between 2022 and 2024 and found non-compliant levels of chemical residues in Canada.

However, those inspections did not lead to recalls, or a corrective action was implemented and the investigations were closed, the agency said. 

Driscoll’s has said it amended its controls to comply with Canadian standards, adding the company has never knowingly shipped products it believed to be unsafe. 

A pack of Driscoll’s raspberries sold in Montreal. (Gloria Henríquez/CBC News)

But Vares says the CFIA should’ve advised Canadians about the berries so people could make an informed decision about what they purchase. 

“I was disappointed and shocked. I think they should’ve told us that this was the situation,“ he said.  

Vares says he now has doubts about whether the CFIA is taking all necessary steps to ensure the safety of imported food and he is concerned about proposed cuts to the agency. 

In January, the federal government announced it would cut over 500 jobs from the agency as part of its larger workforce reduction strategy. 

According to the Agricultural Union representing 4,000 CFIA employees, approximately 150 positions have been eliminated to date, the majority of which have been administrative support staff for inspectors, and few inspectors themselves. 

However, the union says there is reason for people like Vares to be concerned. 

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The union says the Driscoll’s allegations, reported by CBC News in late September, reveal gaps in Canada’s food safety system and proposed cuts are chipping away at the capacity of the CFIA to properly do its job, at a time when it’s already a lean operation. 

“We’re still doing work, but we’re just not doing as much as we should be doing,” said Milton Dyck, the union’s president.

Dyck says Canada’s job eliminations come at a time when the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has undergone deep cuts under the Trump administration. 

“Roughly half of our overall food imports come from the USA. Trump’s massive cuts to the FDA have thrown the quality of those imports into question,” Dyck said. 

“The latest scandal with Driscoll’s is just the latest example, but inspectors and food safety experts agree that many could follow in the months or years to come.”

The CFIA’s executive director for food operations, Pamela MacDonald, wouldn’t comment on Driscoll’s case directly but told CBC News the agency did not cut any inspectors as part of their expenditure review and were careful where they trimmed. 

“We do need to make sure that we have resources on the ground doing what they need to do,” MacDonald told CBC in an interview. 

In addition, the CFIA has said the government is reinvesting $30 million into the agency, “primarily to strengthen food safety inspection and front-line services.” 

The CFIA added, in a written statement Thursday evening, that the reinvestment “will create up to 250 new inspection and oversight positions focused on higher-risk and emerging food safety and consumer protection issues.”

The Agricultural Union says that’s not enough given the net job loss. 

MacDonald, however, believes Canada has a rigorous oversight system: it uses surveillance and inspection to make sure the food coming into Canada meets its standards. 

She thinks the right protections are in place to ensure Canadians “feel confident that what they’re buying is not going to harm their family.” 

Where inspections do not lead to recalls or corrective action is taken, MacDonald said notices in general are not made public because it doesn’t help better inform Canadians of safety hazards. 

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She says once the risk assessment is done both through their own investigation and in conjunction with Health Canada, a recall notice will only be published when there is a cause for concern for Canadians and products need to be removed from either the shelves or people’s homes. 

“But to do that for every above-the-maximum residue level whenever there isn’t a food safety cause for concern, I don’t think it is necessary,” MacDonald added. 

Vares says he’s not comfortable with that policy. 

”I would like to know where norms are exceeded and then it’s my choice to say I’ll take the chance or I won’t take the chance,” he said. 

Lawrence Goodridge, director of the University of Guelph’s Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety, says making the notices public could hurt producers who have safe products. 

For example, Goodridge says the cyclospora outbreak in the United States that sent thousands to hospital after eating contaminated lettuce led to a drop in lettuce sales in Canada, even though there were no known Canadian cases related to that specific outbreak.

“The whole industry could suffer because people tend to not remember the brand or the company. They just know it was berries. So they’re not going to buy any berries,” Goodridge explained. 

Lawrence Goodridge, director of the University of Guelph’s Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety, says Canada has one of the most reliable food safety systems in the world (Submitted by Alex Tran)

Goodridge says geopolitical tensions between the United States and Canada have placed food safety and food security at the forefront. 

“I really think that the Canadian government has to take a critical look at our ability to surveil our food as a sovereign nation as opposed to what has been the norm, which is this kind of cold surveillance.” 

However, Goodridge says Canada has one of the most reliable food safety systems in the world. 

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As for Vares, he says it’s time for the government to review Canada’s food system: from pricing to quality and origin. 

“There needs to be an examination of what’s going on because it’s not working,” he said, adding he is more determined than ever not to buy American produce and would like to see more Canadian fruits and vegetables on the shelves.