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Are you getting duped on your authentic imported products?

Olive oil mislabelled 'extra virgin,' class action suits allege

For Sylvain Charlebois, touring pasta-maker Barilla’s plant in Parma, Italy was a suitable primer on the muddled world of country of origin labeling.

“Barilla is a very well known brand and it’s a high quality brand and they, of course, buy wheat from Canada to produce their pasta,” says Charlebois, a professor at the University of Guelph’s Food Institute. He points out that importing wheat from Canada is very much a part of the Italian company’s business model. “But it’s not recognized, unless you actually talk to people in the plant about how they make the product.”

The Italian company imports the wheat, processes it in Parma or wherever the factory happens to be (they have production facilities in Norway, France and the U.S. among other countries), stamps it Made in Italy and ships it back across the Atlantic for Canadians to enjoy a “taste of Italy.”

It’s an endless loop, one you’d find in array of other products – like mustard for example, says Charlebois.

“Canada is the largest mustard grain exporter in the world and we sell grains to the US and we buy it back in a bottle but there’s no mention of it,” he explains.

Not that that the information isn’t available. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has a strict country of origin labeling system.

“The declaration of the country of origin is mandatory for all imported processed products whether they are sold in their original containers or repackaged in Canada,” says the government’s website.

With something like wine, claiming it as from a country means at least 75 per cent “of the juice of grapes grown in that country and it is fermented, processed, blended and finished in that country; or in the case of wines blended in that country, at least 75 percent of the finished wine is fermented and processed in that country from the juice of grapes grown in that country.”

The Canadian Border Services Agency has its own lengthy set of rules for marking imported goods.

For something like clothes or textile fiber products, says Phil Norris, spokesperson for the Competition Bureau, which polices and enforces, among other things, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act and the Textile Labelling Act, the rules are a little different.

“Where a dealer imports textile fibre products into Canada, the Textile Labelling Act and the Regulations do not require that the name of the country of origin be identified unless a representation is made to the fact that the article, fabric or fibre therein is imported,” says Norris. “When such a representation is made, it is then required that the country of origin of that article or part be stated.”

For example, a Canadian shirt manufacturer making men’s shirts from imported fabrics doesn’t need to tell consumers that the fabrics are imported unless its branded as imported, at which point the consumer deserves to know from where.

Try to pull a fast one and it could cost you.

“Under the Competition Act, a corporation found to have engaged in conduct described in the civil false or misleading representations provision can be ordered to pay a maximum administrative monetary penalty of $10,000,000 for a first order and $15,000,000 for any subsequent order,” says Norris. “In the case of an individual, the maximum administrative monetary penalty is $750,000 for a first order and $1,000,000 for any subsequent order.”

Just last week a Californian judge approved two class action lawsuits against the Filippo Berio, Bertolli and Carapelli olive oils alleging they are neither “made in Italy” or “extra virgin” brand olive oil as they claim.

Olive oil has had a shady history in Canada as well.

But labelling isn’t always just a legal issue. For some regions, “product of…” or “made in…” tethers the goods to a long-running reputation or a place known for high quality products.

“Wine and cheese are the perfect examples of that – it’s Champagne and Dijon and Camembert, these are all regions that over the years they’ve actually used their location to push and create an aura around a particular product,” says Charlebois. “In North America we’re not as sensitive to that as people are in Europe.”

It works the other way as well. For as long as regions have been using their reputation to validate the quality of their products, clever marketers have followed suit, says Alan Middleton, assistant professor of marketing and executive Director of the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York University.

It’s called the Country-of-Origin Effect, where a brand uses a name or styling to infer that they’re from somewhere they’re not.

“Smirnoff is made in New Jersey and it has no Russian connections whatsoever, but when it launched the owners recognized that to give it that air of authenticity,” says Middleton, who’s spent a good portion of his career working with global food brands. “They couldn’t say Russian sourced, but they could make it sound like that by its brand name.”

He also points to Haagen-Dazs, started in New York’s The Bronx neighbourhood. Thanks to its European-sounding name, it has an air of mysteriousness of being from some exotic European locale.

Of course, in recent years, things like social media have made it trickier for marketers to keep up the ruse.

“The risk for a marketer – if they try to be overt in their claims of origin and they’re not, they will get exposed,” says Middleton. “So what the marketer tries to do nowadays is infer without claiming, because of that social media exposure.”

Middleton only sees the use of “Made in” or “Product of” gaining momentum at the regional level to match the swelling local movement.

“It’s called place branding, and it’s a recognition that if you’re Ontario or you’re Canada or you’re Paris, you’ve got to have certain characteristics associated with you for three reasons,” says Middleton. “One of which is to attract foreign direct investment, second is to attract tourism, and thirdly is to strengthen your Country-of-Origin Effect. “

As for Made in Canada, well, we could use a little strengthening of the brand.

“Canada doesn’t really understand it,” says Middleton adding that he’s on the Marketing Performance Assessment Committee of the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation. “We’ve cut spending overseas and are really only known for three things: maple syrup, water, and moderately good government – the rest is ice and snow.”