Expert says language on labels leaves a lot of room for guesswork about how Canadian a product is

Amid the patriotic chest-thumping and sincere efforts of Canadians to do right by their country in the face of the on-again, off-again U.S. tariffs, the humble little Maple Leaf has been working overtime.

Perhaps nowhere more so than at the grocery store, where shelves are emblazoned with red maple leaves to indicate that certain products are, to some extent, Canadian.

But does it mean what shoppers think it means? Why do some Canadian products have a maple leaf sticker or shelf talker, while others do not?

A visit to a Halifax Sobeys and Superstore found a somewhat haphazard and bewildering use of the indicators.

For example, Kicking Horse Coffee had a maple leaf sticker on the shelf at one Sobeys, while Newfoundland-based Jumping Bean Coffee did not. Kicking Horse Coffee was started in British Columbia and was sold to Italy's Lavazza in 2017, but still employs people in Canada.

Coffee beans from Tim Hortons, which is partly owned by a Brazilian investment firm, did not have the sticker at Sobeys, but did have a shelf talker at the Superstore saying it was "prepared in Canada." The packages themselves had a prominent maple leaf on the front, with text underneath that said "roasting in Canada since 1964."

Some products that are likely known by locals to be produced in Nova Scotia, such as Farmers milk, Oxford blueberries and Cosman and Whidden honey did not have the sticker at one Sobeys, though some did have the branding for Nova Scotia Loyal. Nova Scotia Loyal is a provincial program that labels products as being locally made.

Nova Scotia-based Just Us Coffee had coffee beans with both the Nova Scotia Loyal branding and the maple leaf sticker on the shelf. 

The maple syrup aisle was equally confusing. Only one maple syrup product at Sobeys — the store's in-house brand, Compliments — received the maple leaf shelf treatment, while several other Canadian brands did not.

Anna and Chris Hutchinson have been producing maple syrup at their farm south of Berwick, N.S., for more than a decade, selling locally as well as exporting to the Middle East, the Netherlands and Costa Rica.

Anna Hutchinson drives her products to every Sobeys store in the province and stocks the shelves herself.

She has noticed that some stores have the maple leaf sticker on the shelves bearing her syrup, while others do not. She says using the stickers is at the discretion of the store manager, but if some are missing next to her product, it's likely just human error.

"I think it's just staffing," she said. "They just don't have enough staff to look after things."

And, granted, grocery stores carry thousands of products. It would be difficult to successfully label everything correctly. 

But Hutchinson said she does want her products to have the shelf sticker because she sees that it makes a difference in what customers buy. She adds that while her products do have the Nova Scotia Loyal branding, it's "not noticeable enough."

As a consumer, Hutchinson questions how the store decides when to use the maple leaf shelf sticker.

"They're everywhere. Ninety per cent of the product seems like it has one of those on it. So it makes me wonder, OK, have you done the research? Do you know that or did someone just put it there?"

The CBC requested an interview with Sobeys, but the company did not respond.

A spokesperson for Loblaw declined an interview and provided a statement that did not answer the CBC's question about how the company decides which products get the "prepared in Canada" shelf sticker.

The statement said Loblaw is showcasing products that are prepared in Canada in its stores, online and in flyers in the hopes it will make purchasing decisions easier. The company is also securing as much food as possible that is grown or made in Canada, and seeking more such products, the statement said.

The fine print

At Sobeys — a Canadian company — almost all of the in-house brand Compliments products had the maple leaf sticker, even if the product itself was just "imported for" Sobeys, such as shredded coconut, or "prepared for" Sobeys, like orange juice.

Mike von Massow, a professor at the University of Guelph who studies food and labelling, says food producers and retailers should explain what their labelling actually means.

"I think grocers need to be a little bit careful. They need to be straightforward in saying what it means and why they're putting those labels on there. Have some companies gone too far? Perhaps," von Massow said.

"As long as we're clear on what they're telling us, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but it might in some cases be an oversimplification," he said. "There is a risk of, you know, to coin a new phrase, maple-washing to try and get more credit for being Canadian than perhaps a customer might expect."

The language on labels leaves a lot of room for guesswork about how Canadian an item truly is, with terms such as "made in Canada from imported and domestic ingredients," "manufactured by/for," and "imported by."

Canada has plenty of rules about food labelling, but most consumers haven't taken the time to visit the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website to decipher it all.

Von Massow says if buying Canadian is important to consumers, they should read labels and ask questions.

"There's obviously room for deception here. But if you ask, if you pay attention, you can make your decision based on that nuanced middle ground."