Calgary food company mislabelled Chinese peas

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is investigating a Calgary food packaging company that used labels indicating a shipment of peas was from Canada, when the legumes were actually imported from China.

Mary Macdonald, who lives in Winnipeg Beach, Man.,bought a bag of peas confident they came from Calgary, as the sticker indicated. But when she peeled off the top label, she discovered another one.

"In fact, they're actually a product of China, and that part was covered up," Macdonald said. "I felt really annoyed."

All the improperly labelled products have been pulled from stores.

Macdonald said she was concerned about a potential coverup.

"China has been on the media quite a bit, and we've been hearing that maybe things aren't produced quite as safely as we're used to here in Canada," she said.

Canadian law requiresproduce grown outside Canada's borders to say so on the label. Violators can face severe fines and even prosecution.

Macdonald said she was angry because she felt "the consumer was being tricked" in this case, but the company responsible for the blunder, Calgary-based Thomas Fresh Inc., saidit was simply amixup.

"That was an oversight," said company president Tom Byttynen. "My gang is used to having our labels say 'Product of China' on it. Unfortunately, they used old labels that did not say 'Product of China.' There was no malintent in anything there."

TheCFIA says labelling problems are not uncommon. The agency investigates an average of 600 cases per year.