On September 26, 2024, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) released its 2022-2023 Food Fraud Report. During the period April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, CFIA carried out a number of activities to prevent, detect and deter food fraud, including monitoring and analyzing risks, etc. Surveillance during this period included inspecting, sampling, and testing fish, honey, meat, olive oil, other expensive oils, spices, grated hard cheeses, and juices; and conducting inspections of food products from different types of food businesses (including importers, domestic processors traders and retailers) were targeted and monitored for their commodities. The results are as follows:

(1) The main food frauds identified by CFIA in its surveillance were: species substitution (when high-value species are replaced by cheaper species) and underweighting (when the product weight is less than the declared weight), adulteration of honey with added sugar, adulteration of olive oil with lower-value oils, substitution of lower-value oils for other expensive oils or dilution of lower-value oils, adulteration through the addition of fillers, colorings or dyes, and other impermissible ingredients, or diluted single-ingredient ground spices, grated hard cheeses adulterated with anti-caking agents in excess of permissible levels, and fruit juices substituted or diluted with low-value fruit juices, water, or the addition of exotic sugars or acids;

(2) CFIA collected 777 targeted samples for laboratory analytical testing, of which 88 percent were satisfactory: fish 88 percent, honey 84 percent, meat 98 percent, olive oil 83 percent, other costly oils 62 percent, spices 86 percent, grated hard cheeses 68 percent, and fruit juices 90 percent. Targeted labeling verifications were also conducted on the following commodities, with pass rates of 85% for fish and seafood products (net quantity verified), 69% for olive oil (basic food labeling verified), 50% for expensive oils (basic food labeling verified), and 86% for spices (basic food labeling verified);

(3) CFIA's disposition of non-conforming items, including destruction and recalls, prevented nearly 140,000 kilograms of fraudulent food from being sold in Canada.

For more details see: https://inspection.canada.ca/en/about-cfia/science-and-research-cfia/our-research-and-publications/food-fraud-report-2023