What’s a “Canadian” food product?
Where can you find Canadian foods?
Those are questions Marnie Scott hopes can be answered by her website canadiancoolfoods.com.
“There are so many ways of showing that something has got some Canadian content that it confuses the consumer,” said Scott, an economic development specialist who is now a consultant for the defence-related aerospace industry.
“We need to have a database of Products of Canada.”
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Scott said she was surprised years ago when she discovered that there was no comprehensive and refined public listing of Canadian-made products.
Labels weren’t necessarily helping shoppers because some products would be described as being processed in Canada, or packaged in Canada, or “made” in Canada, without providing much of an understanding of exactly how much that made a product Canadian.
So she started her website and has so far built it out to contain over 3,000 products that conform to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s requirements for the term “Product of Canada,” which compels a food maker to source almost all of the ingredients from Canada, plus process and package products with “negligible” non-Canadian materials or labour.
“Basically no one was doing it,” said Scott, explaining why she took this on as a side project.
With more and more attention turning to local foods, Canadian Cool Foods has a wide potential audience. It also, Scott hopes, fills a void in the average consumer’s consciousness about foods that come from outside their immediate area.
“Canada is so siloed…. We know a bit about our province’s (food products,) but I thought a (Canada-wide) initiative would be the way to go to find truly Canadian products.”
She’s been active in the area for years, but still has found some surprises.
“I didn’t know we grow walnuts and pecans in Ontario,” said Scott.
“I didn’t know that we grow tea, actual tea, in British Columbia.”
Scott is covering the costs of the site herself but hopes to find sponsors.
“It’s become like a passion.”
