Purchasing a prepared and packaged product

What’s on your labels?

A few simple definitions taken from the Concise Oxford Dictionary:


Manufactured - making of articles by labor or with machines on a large scale

Prepared - make ready for

Packaged – put together in a pack

Made – prepare, construct, accomplish

Product - things produced by a natural process


Except for a few errors, everything I purchase this year is labeled a product of Canada. The other labels….well…they just don’t cut it.

When I starting checking labels a few years ago, I only checked that the item had Canada on the package. It seemed enough. However, now, even if it says Product of Canada, we can’t be sure how much of the product is Canadian.

A few months ago (maybe more) I was watching an episode of Marketplace and Wendy was checking the No Name Vanilla Ice Cream which was labeled a product of Canada. I am not sure of all the details or the Canadian mumbo jumbo guidelines of food…..but the final result? Not all the contents of the ice cream were Canadian. Do all products of Canada follow the same guidelines? I don’t know, maybe Wendy does.

What I do know, is that it is time for the Canadian guidelines to change.

Until then,....this is the best I can do.