Exempt products

The CPLA broadly defines "product" to mean any article that is, or may be, the subject of trade or commerce, including both food and non-food items.^[7] Textiles, on the other hand, fall under the Textile Labelling Act, and precious metals fall under the Precious Metals Marking Act.^[8]

There are certain classes of items that are exempt from the CPLA, such as commercial-, industrial-, or institutional-use only products, among others.^[2] The following products are exempt from all requirements of the CPLA:^[9]

• drugs and medical devices (as defined in the Food and Drugs Act, section 2)
• any food (as defined in the Safe Food for Canadians Act, section 2); this does not include pet food.
• products intended only for commercial, industrial, or institutional use
• products intended only for export
• products sold only to a duty-free store
• prepackaged textile articles (as defined in the Textile Labelling and Advertising Regulations, section 21)
• replacement parts for consumer durables (e.g., cars, appliances), under the condition that these products are not displayed to consumers
• certain artists’ supplies: colours for painting, dyeing, or printing; ceramic and enamel colours and glazes; surfaces and tools

The requirements under sections 4, 5, 6, and 10 of the CPLA (which deal specifically with requirements regarding labels, advertising, packaging, and net quantity information) do not apply to any prepackaged products that fall under the labelling requirements of any of the following:^[9]

• Feeds Act
• Fertilizers Act
• Seeds Act
• Pest Control Products Act

Cases

In 2016, two executives of Mucci International Marketing Inc. and Mucci Pac Ltd. and their companies were levied fines by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency tribunal that totalled $1.5 million. Their offense was fraudulently putting "Product of Canada" labels on large quantities of peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers grown mainly in Mexico. The defendants supplied the mislabelled produce to Costco, Loblaws, and Sobeys. The fraudulent labelling was discovered in 2012 at the Ontario Food Terminal, and investigators later executed three search warrants in 2013 and 2014, which resulted in the seizure of more than 70 boxes of documents. A court in Windsor, Ontario, heard the case. The agreed statement of facts quoted an email of a Mucci worker, where he was told "to make it Canada even though it is Mexico."^[11] The company, which was located in Kingsville, Ontario, at the time, was also sentenced to probation for a three-year term.^[12]

In November 2017, a tomato processing company in Maidstone, Ontario—which had received a controversial $3-million provincial grant—was convicted of fraudulently mislabelling products as organic under the CPLA as well as other legislation. The company and its owner were also charged with falsifying the country of origin on their products between September 2013 and July 2015, using labels that read "Product of Canada" for produce that was American in origin. The owner was charged with lying to a federal food inspector on 8 January 2015. The case was heard in the Ontario Court of Justice. Separately, the company went bankrupt, owing more than a hundred creditors a total of over $25 million.^[13][14]

On 12 March 2018, AMCO Produce, a greenhouse grower in Leamington, Ontario—along with its directors Fausto Amicone and Mark Wehby—answered to charges brought by the CFIA for origin-of-vegetable fraud in a Windsor court. The corporation pleaded guilty to three charges under the Food and Drugs Act, the CPLA, and the Canada Agricultural Products Act, and was fined $210,000.^[15] The individuals were let off in exchange for the guilty plea.^[16] The sentence included "intrusive" probation for a period of time under which the CFIA gains "unfettered" access to company records.^[16] The case began in February 2013 when the CFIA conducted a random inspection at the Ontario Food Terminal. Greenhouse peppers had been fraudulently mislabelled as Ontario produce at a time of year that was too cold for greenhouses to operate. The case covered offenses that occurred over a two-year span of time.^[17][16]