The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) found dozens of cases in which major grocers were mislabeling imported items as Canadian-made, amid tensions caused by U.S.-Canada tariffs.
The CFIA told Daily Hive in an email that it saw an increase in complaints “related to country of origin claims on food labels or in advertisements,” receiving a total of 167 complaints between Nov. 1, 2024, and Sept. 1, 2025.
As shown in the table below, complaints spiked between February and August, when the U.S.-Canada tariffs were in full force.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
As of Sept. 1, the CFIA has evaluated 137 of the complaints. It identified 48 cases where grocery stores labelled imported food as Canadian.
The agency stated that 45 different stores were involved in these complaints, with 42 stores receiving one complaint each, resulting in a non-compliance being identified.
Three stores received two complaints each, resulting in non-compliance being identified. The CFIA didn’t disclose which Canadian grocers were involved.
“The CFIA takes food mislabelling seriously and took action in every case of non-compliance, and the implicated companies took corrective actions to address the cause of the error,” the agency stated.
Corrective actions can include reviewing retail labelling processes, raising awareness of the importance of accurate labelling, issuing reminder letters about regulatory requirements, and following up to confirm that corrective actions have been taken.
The agency has the authority to impose fines of up to $15,000 per offence on non-compliant grocers. No stores were fined in these cases.
In the early days of the trade war, tens of thousands of Canadians signed a petition urging the use of “Product of Canada” labels in grocery stores.
Grocery giants like Loblaw, Sobeys, and Metro heard the calls and pledged to promote made-in-Canada products amid the tariffs, labelling them with a maple leaf or Canadian-made symbols.
However, some shoppers took to social media, questioning the promotions and sharing instances of imported items being labelled as Canadian.
Vortechtral/Reddit
Canada removed retaliatory tariffs on American goods on Sept. 1.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. CEO and President Per Bank welcomed the news in a recent LinkedIn post, calling it a “big development” for businesses and customers.
“It means that, in the days and weeks ahead, the price of goods in our stores impacted by tariffs will come down,” he wrote. “Prices will come down over time, as we sell through inventory that was purchased based on tariffed pricing.”