Canada’s dairy processors are engaged in a bitter battle with dairy producers and MPs over the implications of labelling amendments approved by the House of Commons agriculture committee in June.
The processors insist the dairy labelling code, set to go before the House of Commons for approval in October as part of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency bill, will disrupt interprovincial trade and essentially block sale of up to $2 billion worth of dairy substitute products that contain some dairy ingredient.
“The spin is that this was just a truth-in-dairy-product-labelling amendment, but the reality is that it really is a way to protect the dairy industry from competition from substitute products,” said Don Jarvis, president of the Dairy Processors Association of Canada.
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He said because it contains some dairy whey, the product Cheez Whiz could not be marketed in Canada if the amendment passes Parliament.
The association is asking the Alberta government to become its political advocate, challenging the amendments as interprovincial trade barriers.
The dairy farmer lobby dismisses the complaint.
“This is a labelling amendment and simply says you cannot label something with a dairy term if it does not contain that ingredient,” said Dairy Farmers of Canada economist Rick Phillips. “They could still market Cheez Whiz. They could call it Whiz.”
In a letter to MPs July 6, New Brunswick producer and DFC president Jacques Laforge refuted the processor arguments.
“The amendments will not deprive consumers of choice in the marketplace nor will it inhibit innovation and growth in the food industry,” he said. “To the contrary, it provides a basis for informed consumer choice. … It would not in any manner prohibit the manufacturing of any food product.”
