Government of Canada Responds to Report on Grocery Affordability
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Earlier this year, the House of Commons Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee released a report entitled “Grocery Affordability: Examining Rising Food Costs in Canada.” In October, the government response to the report is was made available. Among the thirteen recommendations in the report, the Committee had calls on the Government of Canada to:
Take the necessary steps to collect and make public data on costs throughout the Canadian agri-food supply chain—including disaggregated data on costs in the primary agriculture, food and beverage processing, and food retail sectors— along the same lines as the information the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service makes available in its Food Dollar Series research program.
The government’s response indicates that they rely on Statistics Canada data, although GCCA is aware of new efforts by Transport Canada to launch a data summit later this fall that will likely contribute to this.
In cooperation with the provinces and territories, address food waste by: investigating how the elimination of “best-before” dates on foods would impact Canadians; and partnering with non-profit organizations and large food retailers to develop programs to divert food that would otherwise be wasted to Canadians experiencing food insecurity.
The government’s response notes that “there are many factors that contribute to food loss and waste, including lack of awareness and quantification, operational inefficiencies, quality standards, inadequate transportation and storage, inaccurate forecasting and inventory management.” They note further that “the CFIA and Health Canada are working together to improve consumer education related to date labelling on prepackaged foods. The CFIA will continue updating the agency’s website to better educate consumers on best-before dates, and to clarify that they are an indicator of a food’s freshness and quality, not safety. It will also update the analysis related to possible regulatory changes based on feedback from a targeted Health Canada questionnaire on potential food regulatory initiatives, which includes questions on stakeholders’ perception of best before dates and the role they play in food waste.”
