Is that grocery product really Canadian? Or is it 'maple-washing'?

Frances Willick · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 11, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Amid the patriotic chest-thumping and sincere efforts of Canadians to bash close by their state successful the look of the on-again, off-again U.S. tariffs, the humble small Maple Leaf has been moving overtime.

Perhaps obscurity much truthful than at the market store, wherever shelves are emblazoned with reddish maple leaves to bespeak that definite products are, to immoderate extent, Canadian.

But does it mean what shoppers deliberation it means? Why bash immoderate Canadian products person a maple leafage sticker oregon support talker, portion others bash not?

A sojourn to a Halifax Sobeys and Superstore recovered a somewhat haphazard and bewildering usage of the indicators.

For example, immoderate Canadian roasters of java beans, specified arsenic B.C.-based Kicking Horse Coffee, had a maple leaf sticker connected the support astatine 1 Sobeys, portion Newfoundland-based Jumping Bean Coffee, did not.

Coffee beans from Tim Hortons, which is owned by a Brazilian concern firm, did not person the sticker astatine Sobeys, but did person a support talker at the Superstore saying it was "prepared successful Canada." The packages themselves had a salient maple leafage connected the front, with substance underneath that said "roasting successful Canada since 1964."

Some products that are apt known by locals to beryllium produced successful Nova Scotia, specified arsenic Farmers milk, Oxford blueberries and Cosman and Whidden honey did not person the sticker astatine 1 Sobeys, though immoderate did person the branding for Nova Scotia Loyal. Nova Scotia Loyal is simply a provincial programme that labels products arsenic being locally made.

Nova Scotia-based Just Us Coffee had java beans with some the Nova Scotia Loyal branding and the maple leafage sticker connected the shelf. 

The maple syrup aisle was arsenic confusing. Only 1 maple syrup merchandise astatine Sobeys — the store's in-house brand, Our Compliments — received the maple leafage support treatment, portion respective different Canadian brands did not.

Anna and Chris Hutchinson person been producing maple syrup astatine their workplace southbound of Berwick, N.S., for much than a decade, selling locally arsenic good as exporting to the Middle East, the Netherlands and Costa Rica.

Anna Hutchinson drives her products to every Sobeys store in the state and stocks the shelves herself.

She has noticed that immoderate stores have the maple leafage sticker connected the shelves bearing her syrup, portion others bash not. She says utilizing the stickers is astatine the discretion of the store manager, but if immoderate are missing adjacent to her product, it's apt conscionable quality error.

"I deliberation it's conscionable staffing," she said. "They conscionable don't person capable unit to look aft things."

And, granted, market stores transportation thousands of products. It would beryllium hard to successfully statement everything correctly. 

But Hutchinson said she does privation her products to person the support sticker due to the fact that she sees that it makes a quality successful what customers buy. She adds that portion her products bash person the Nova Scotia Loyal branding, it's "not noticeable enough."

As a consumer, Hutchinson questions however the store decides erstwhile to usage the maple leafage support sticker.

"They're everywhere. Ninety per cent of the merchandise seems similar it has 1 of those connected it. So it makes maine wonder, OK, person you done the research? Do you cognize that oregon did idiosyncratic conscionable enactment it there?"

The CBC requested an interrogation with Sobeys, but the institution did not respond.

A spokesperson for Loblaw declined an interrogation and provided a connection that did not reply the CBC's question astir however the institution decides which products get the "prepared successful Canada" support talker.

The connection said Loblaw is showcasing products that are prepared successful Canada successful its stores, online and successful flyers successful the hopes it volition marque purchasing decisions easier. The company is besides securing arsenic overmuch nutrient arsenic imaginable that is grown oregon made successful Canada, and seeking much specified products, the connection said.

The good print

At Sobeys — a Canadian institution — almost each of the in-house marque Our Compliments products had the maple leafage sticker, even if the merchandise itself was conscionable "imported for" Sobeys, specified arsenic shredded coconut, oregon "prepared for" Sobeys, like orange juice.

Mike von Massow, a prof astatine the University of Guelph who studies nutrient and labelling, says nutrient producers and retailers should explicate what their labelling really means.

"I deliberation grocers request to beryllium a small spot careful. They request to beryllium straightforward successful saying what it means and wherefore they're putting those labels connected there. Have immoderate companies gone excessively far? Perhaps," von Massow said.

"As agelong arsenic we're wide connected what they're telling us, I don't deliberation it's needfully a atrocious thing, but it mightiness successful immoderate cases beryllium an oversimplification," helium said. "There is simply a hazard of, you know, to coin a caller phrase, maple-washing to effort and get much recognition for being Canadian than possibly a lawsuit mightiness expect."

The connection connected labels leaves a batch of country for guesswork astir however Canadian an point genuinely is, with presumption specified arsenic "made successful Canada from imported and home ingredients," "manufactured by/for," and "imported by."

Canada has plentifulness of rules astir nutrient labelling, but astir consumers haven't taken the clip to sojourn the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website to decipher it all.

Von Massow says if buying Canadian is important to consumers, they should work labels and inquire questions.

"There's evidently country for deception here. But if you ask, if you wage attention, you tin marque your determination based connected that nuanced mediate ground."