Mislabelled potato chips sent a Brampton teen into anaphylactic shock. Now her mother wants answers
CBC
When Rupa Singh purchased a bag of imported spicy potato chips from a local Indian grocery store in Brampton, she had no idea just two chips would send her daughter into anaphylactic shock.
Singh's 15-year-old daughter has a life-threatening allergy to milk protein. An anaphylactic reaction can be life-threatening, and means her throat swells up and it gets very difficult to breathe if she consumes products that contain the protein.
"Had I not been home, I don't know what would've happened," said Singh, adding she lept into action to administer an EpiPen to save her daughter.
After her daughter's condition improved, Singh grabbed the packet of Uncle Chipps and noticed the original packaging's ingredients and nutritional information had been covered with a second label. When she removed the label, she saw that "milk solids" was listed in the original packaging's ingredients list.
That's when she decided to file a complaint with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
"How is the agency in Canada allowing for misleading packages?" Singh said.
While the situation was scary enough for Singh and her family, it's far from uncommon when it comes to imported international products, food distribution and policy researcher Sylvain Charlebois says.
"This is a really common problem in Canada, and the Safe Foods for Canadians Act was actually brought forward to address these issues," he said.
"Importers need to comply with labelling regulations in Canada, so that would be a breach," he said of Singh's incident. "The companies are responsible for making sure that labels are accurate."
The Safe Foods for Canadians Act was introduced in 2019 with the goal of improving food safety oversight for imported international foods. One of the ways it aims to achieve that is by requiring stringent licensing for food importers and allowing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to trace imports.
Charlesbois says the CFIA should be able to identify the importer responsible for a given mislabelled product.
"They have the data, they have the information, and they can trace back the product to an importer specifically and hold that importer accountable," Charlebois said.
When contacted by CBC News, CFIA did not reference Singh's complaint but instead provided a statement on what enforcement and accountability measures it takes when there is a breach.
"When there is a violation of federal requirements, CFIA has the authority to require correction of misleading labels, seize and detain non-compliant food or order the removal or destruction of imported foods that do not meet Canadian requirements," CFIA spokesperson Patrick Girard wrote.
As classes across New Brunswick pause for the holidays, it’s not yet clear which schools are making a dent in chronic absenteeism — a stubborn post-pandemic trend that mostly afflicts the high school cohort, especially in the Anglophone West school district.
CBC Quebec has launched its Make the Season Kind campaign. It's our annual campaign that focuses on food insecurity, while also celebrating kindness, generosity and community spirit around the province.
Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will hold a public inquiry as soon as 2026 into the former Progressive Conservative government’s post-election efforts to approve an environmental licence for sand-mining company Sio Silica.
Premier Scott Moe has led the Saskatchewan Party through two straight elections, winning majority governments each time.
Eight weeks after adding a GM BrightDrop van to the fleet of his plumbing and heating business, Marty Salliss has no complaints, only praise.
Nearly half of Alberta’s Grade 6 students failed the provincewide math test in 2024, three years after the province started rolling out its new elementary school curriculum.
Toronto could get new cars on the road whose drivers will never get frustrated by gridlock — because the cars would be driving themselves.
Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, some London-area organizations say they have noticed a decline in donations this holiday season.
Prominent northern leaders have been touting the Arctic economic and security corridor as a "nation-building" project that will bring economic benefits to the two territories it straddles, but others are split on how much good will come out of it.
When the federal government tabled its 2025 budget last month, it included a proposal that tax fraud experts say is long overdue — if also a belated acknowledgement that the Canada Revenue Agency has been repeatedly duped into paying out untold millions in bogus tax refunds to scammers.
Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study.
While some are writing wishlists for Santa Claus, a group of Newfoundland and Labrador youth are writing their wishlist for the provincial government.
A horse owner near Stewiacke, N.S., says the current shortage of hay in the province is putting pressure on her financially.