Irn Bru amongst imported foods banned from Canada

A bottling of IRN BRU has been banned in Canada along with a host of other British foods in a sudden move by Canadian food inspectors.
Picture: submittedPicture: submitted
Picture: submitted

A speciality shop in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was told items on its shelves were illegal and had to be removed.

Brit Foods owner Tony Badger says he’s sold products like Irn-Bru, Marmite and Ovaltine in his three stores since 1997.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But he’s been notified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency some of their ingredients are illegal in Canada.

IRN-BRU is available in Canada in a specially labelled 500ml PET bottle that fully comply with Canadian legislation.

A.G. Barr has been exporting this product via a local distributor for over 15 years and say they will continue to do so.

Canada is home to one of the largest expatriate Scottish populations in the world.

Mr Badger said this is the first time he’s had trouble with his products, adding he’s seen Marmite and Ovaltine sold in other stores across Canada.

He said: “We’ve been bringing Irn-Bru in since the very beginning.

“My understanding was we were importing legally. We’ve been declaring it through a customs broker and we’ve never had an issue until now.”

However, on type of Irn-Bru bottling contains the red food colouring Ponceau 4R, which is not on the CFIA’s approved list of food additives.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

According to the CFIA’s letter to Mr Badger, Marmite, Ovaltine, Lucozade, Penguin Bars and Bovril “are enriched with vitamins and minerals” and therefore illegal.

The letter also said other products like canned soup and stock contained too much animal products.

Mr Badger began having trouble with his products last October when his Christmas shipment was detained for inspection.

Mr Badger said that isn’t unusual but he began to ask questions when the process took longer than usual.

He said sending requests for more information and getting anything in writing was a challenge and all the CFIA told him was that some of his products didn’t meet Canadian standards.

In order to get the legal products released, he had to abandon the seized products.

What was left of the shipment finally arrived on Dec. 18.

He said he still hasn’t received a list of the products that were seized and abandoned.

CFIA officials then came to his store last week and seized the remaining product from his shelves.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “The concern now is, with the next shipment, if it gets held there may be new issues with new products, so it somewhat paralyses our ability to bring new product in.”

SEE ALSO:

Related topics: