Driscoll’s Berry Case Tests Canada’s Food Safety Oversight

Canada’s food safety oversight faces renewed scrutiny after federal inspections identified pesticide residues exceeding national limits in Driscoll’s berries shipped from the United States between 2022 and 2024. The findings have prompted consumer concerns, a proposed class-action lawsuit in Quebec, and debate over whether staffing reductions could weaken protections for imported food.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed that several inspections detected non-compliant chemical residue levels in the company’s berries sold across Canada. The agency said the investigations were closed after corrective action was implemented or because the inspections did not result in recalls.

The chemicals identified included bifenthrin, iprodione and captan, which are insecticides and fungicides. Driscoll’s has said it revised its controls to comply with Canadian standards and has never knowingly shipped products it believed were unsafe.

In a separate legal development reported by Radio-Canada on October 1, lawyers asked Quebec Superior Court to authorize a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a Quebec woman who purchases the company’s berries. The proposed class would include people who bought Driscoll’s strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or blueberries beginning January 1, 2022.

The filing alleges that the company failed to disclose chemical residues exceeding Canadian limits and made misleading representations about its products. The plaintiff seeks a reduction in consumers’ obligations and punitive damages. Authorization could take at least a year to determine, according to the report.

Driscoll’s has denied allegations raised by former employee David Harada, who filed a lawsuit in California alleging unlawful retaliation after raising concerns about pesticide residues. The company said it investigated the issues he identified, followed the facts and addressed matters requiring corrective action.

The company also stated that its current compliance systems support its position on product safety. It had not responded to CBC News’s request for comment on the Quebec class-action filing at the time of the October 9 report.

In Montreal, resident Thomas Vares said the findings had undermined his confidence in the oversight system. He told CBC News he would no longer purchase Driscoll’s products and wanted authorities to disclose residue violations even when they did not trigger a recall.

“I was shocked to begin with because I had full confidence in our government testing. All of the foods and fruits and vegetables that we buy at the store. So I expected that there were no issues,” said Thomas Vares, a Montreal resident.

Vares said the absence of public notification left consumers without information they could use to make purchasing decisions.

“I was disappointed and shocked. I think they should’ve told us that this was the situation,” Vares said.

His concerns have also extended to planned federal workforce reductions. In January, the Canadian government announced plans to eliminate more than 500 CFIA positions as part of a broader effort to reduce the federal workforce. The Agricultural Union, which represents approximately 4,000 agency employees, said about 150 positions had been eliminated by the time of the October 9 report, mostly administrative support jobs for inspectors, with some inspector positions also affected.

Union president Milton Dyck argued that the reductions could limit the agency’s ability to oversee imported food effectively.

“We’re still doing work, but we're just not doing as much as we should be doing,” said Milton Dyck, president of the Agricultural Union.

Dyck also raised concerns about changes to food safety oversight in the United States, noting that roughly half of Canada’s food imports originate there.

“Roughly half of our overall food imports come from the USA. Trump’s massive cuts to the FDA have thrown the quality of those imports into question,” Dyck said.

He described the Driscoll’s allegations as a warning that further cases could emerge as inspection capacity comes under pressure.

CFIA executive director for food operations Pamela MacDonald defended the agency’s approach, saying expenditure reviews were conducted carefully and did not eliminate inspectors. The government has also committed $30 million in additional funding, which the agency said would create up to 250 inspection and oversight positions focused on higher-risk and emerging food safety concerns.

MacDonald said the agency uses surveillance, inspections and risk assessments, working with Health Canada when appropriate, to determine whether products pose a threat requiring public notification or removal.

“But to do that for every above-the-maximum residue level whenever there isn't a food safety cause for concern, I don't think it is necessary,” MacDonald said.

The CFIA maintains that exceeding a maximum residue level does not automatically establish that a food presents a health risk. Its position is that recalls are warranted when assessments identify a concern requiring products to be removed from store shelves or consumers’ homes.

A separate analysis published by McGill University on October 2 explained that maximum residue levels are regulatory limits informed by estimated dietary exposure and the acceptable daily intake of pesticide residues. That analysis distinguished regulatory non-compliance from evidence of harm, while emphasizing that violations warrant additional scrutiny.

The analysis cited research indicating that 98% of tested samples complied with residue limits. It also referenced a Canadian survey in which captan residues on blackberries reached 34 times the applicable maximum residue level, while calculated exposure remained below the acceptable daily intake under the example examined.

Lawrence Goodridge, director of the University of Guelph’s Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety, warned that public notifications can also affect producers whose products are not implicated in a contamination incident. He cited a Cyclospora outbreak involving lettuce in the United States that reduced Canadian lettuce sales despite no known Canadian cases linked to that outbreak.