Read this story from The Province on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency – which has recently come under fire for covering up the ISA salmon virus in BC – which is halting its investigations of health claims made by food products due to a lack of federal funding. (Dec. 2, 2011)
The federal government has abruptly stopped testing grocery store product labels for exaggerated nutrition information and unproven health claims.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency put the sampling program “on hold indefinitely due to budgetary constraints” after test results from previous years showed widespread problems with food labels on store shelves.
The controversial decision was taken just days before the 2011/12 fiscal year started in April. A “post-meeting addendum” further clarified that all “retail surveys” have been postponed.
Inspectors will continue to follow up on consumer complaints.
The move to pull the plug on proactive and random sampling of a specific number of food products in stores follows a decision earlier this year to suspend another project that policed nutrition claims made by chain restaurants and coffee shops.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/Federal+teams+halt+testing+health+claims/5801083/story.html