Marmite 'unfit for sale' in Canada
Bad news for Canadian anglophiles as the Canadian government suddenly declares several popular Britsh foods unfit for sale.
Products such as Marmite, Lucozade, Penguin Bars, Bovril and Ovaltine are all apparently enriched with too many vitamins and minerals, while other products, such as beef stock and canned soup, contain too much animal product.
The move has affected speciality stores across the Great White North many which rely on the products to make a living.
Tony Badger, an owner of a British speciality store in central Saskatchewan, Canada told the Star-Phoenix newspaper of his frustration with the decision.
"Unfortunately, as time goes by, I'm not importing. As the shelves start to empty ... if it takes too long we'll have no option but to close,"
Badger received a letter from the CFIA to the Customs Border Services Agency dated Nov. 20, outlining all the violations.
The trouble for Badger's shop started last October, when a shipment of 700 cases on eight pallets was seized for inspection in Montreal.
The shipment didn't arrive until late December which meant he lost out selling certain products at Christmas and had to abandon others. "It's been a frustrating three months," he said.
The loss of banned, damaged and expired goods cost him more than C$20,000.
Badger said this is the first time since he opened his first import store in Parksville, B.C. in 1997 that he's had an issue with any of those products and he always thought he'd been importing them legally.
He's been in business in Saskatoon for the past two and a half years, and has another shop in Alberta.
According to a spokesman for A.G. Barr, the company that makes Irn Bru, the drink contains the ingredient Ponceau 4R, "which is fully approved by the UK and EU Food Standards Agencies but is not a permitted ingredient in Canada."
A.G. Barr produces a Canada-specific product in a specially labelled 500 mL bottle that doesn't contain Ponceau 4R, and has been exporting via a local distributor for more than 15 years. That is the only product A.G. Barr exports to Canada, the spokesman said in an email.
