Amid the patriotic chest-thumping and honest efforts of Canadians to do proper by their nation within the face of the on-again, off-again U.S. tariffs, the standard little Maple Leaf has been working extra time.
Maybe nowhere extra so than at the grocery retailer, the place cabinets are emblazoned with pink maple leaves to point that sure merchandise are, to some extent, Canadian.
However does it imply what customers assume it means? Why do some Canadian merchandise have a maple leaf sticker or shelf talker, whereas others don’t?
A go to to a Halifax Sobeys and Superstore discovered a considerably haphazard and bewildering use of the symptoms.
For instance, some Canadian roasters of espresso beans, equivalent to B.C.-based Kicking Horse Espresso, had a maple leaf sticker on the shelf at one Sobeys, whereas Newfoundland-based Leaping Bean Espresso, didn’t.
Espresso beans from Tim Hortons, which is owned by a Brazilian funding agency, didn’t have the sticker at Sobeys, however did have a shelf talker on the Superstore saying it was “ready in Canada.” The packages themselves had a distinguished maple leaf on the entrance, with textual content beneath that mentioned “roasting in Canada since 1964.”
Some merchandise which might be probably identified by locals to be produced in Nova Scotia, equivalent to Farmers milk, Oxford blueberries and Cosman and Whidden honey didn’t have the sticker at one Sobeys, although some did have the branding for Nova Scotia Loyal. Nova Scotia Loyal is a provincial program that labels merchandise as being domestically made.
Nova Scotia-based Simply Us Espresso had espresso beans with each the Nova Scotia Loyal branding and the maple leaf sticker on the shelf.
The maple syrup aisle was equally complicated. Just one maple syrup product at Sobeys — the shop’s in-house model, Our Compliments — obtained the maple leaf shelf therapy, whereas a number of different Canadian manufacturers didn’t.
Anna and Chris Hutchinson have been producing maple syrup at their farm south of Berwick, N.S., for greater than a decade, promoting domestically in addition to exporting to the Center East, the Netherlands and Costa Rica.
Anna Hutchinson drives her merchandise to each Sobeys retailer within the province and shares the cabinets herself.
She has observed that some shops have the maple leaf sticker on the cabinets bearing her syrup, whereas others don’t. She says utilizing the stickers is on the discretion of the shop supervisor, but when some are lacking subsequent to her product, it is probably simply human error.
“I believe it is simply staffing,” she mentioned. “They only haven’t got sufficient workers to take care of issues.”
And, granted, grocery shops carry 1000’s of merchandise. It could be tough to efficiently label every part accurately.
However Hutchinson mentioned she does need her merchandise to have the shelf sticker as a result of she sees that it makes a distinction in what clients purchase. She provides that whereas her merchandise do have the Nova Scotia Loyal branding, it is “not noticeable sufficient.”
As a shopper, Hutchinson questions how the shop decides when to make use of the maple leaf shelf sticker.
“They’re in every single place. Ninety per cent of the product looks like it has a kind of on it. So it makes me surprise, OK, have you ever performed the analysis? Are you aware that or did somebody simply put it there?”
The CBC requested an interview with Sobeys, however the firm didn’t reply.
A spokesperson for Loblaw declined an interview and supplied a press release that didn’t reply the CBC’s query about how the corporate decides which merchandise get the “ready in Canada” shelf talker.
The assertion mentioned Loblaw is showcasing merchandise which might be ready in Canada in its shops, on-line and in flyers within the hopes it can make buying choices simpler. The corporate can also be securing as a lot meals as attainable that’s grown or made in Canada, and in search of extra such merchandise, the assertion mentioned.
The tremendous print
At Sobeys — a Canadian firm — virtually all the in-house model Our Compliments merchandise had the maple leaf sticker, even when the product itself was simply “imported for” Sobeys, equivalent to shredded coconut, or “ready for” Sobeys, like orange juice.
Mike von Massow, a professor on the College of Guelph who research meals and labelling, says meals producers and retailers ought to clarify what their labelling truly means.
“I believe grocers should be somewhat bit cautious. They should be easy in saying what it means and why they’re placing these labels on there. Have some firms gone too far? Maybe,” von Massow mentioned.
“So long as we’re clear on what they’re telling us, I do not assume it is essentially a nasty factor, however it would possibly in some circumstances be an oversimplification,” he mentioned. “There’s a threat of, , to coin a brand new phrase, maple-washing to try to get extra credit score for being Canadian than maybe a buyer would possibly anticipate.”
The language on labels leaves lots of room for guesswork about how Canadian an merchandise really is, with phrases equivalent to “made in Canada from imported and home components,” “manufactured by/for,” and “imported by.”
Canada has plenty of rules about food labelling, however most shoppers have not taken the time to go to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website to decipher all of it.
Von Massow says if shopping for Canadian is essential to shoppers, they need to learn labels and ask questions.
“There’s clearly room for deception right here. However when you ask, when you listen, you can also make your resolution based mostly on that nuanced center floor.”
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