CBC Merketplace is making much ado about nothing in its claims that Maple Leaf Foods is misleading the public by labelling ham luncheon meat "all natural".
The CBC complaint is that the ham contains nitrates and goes on to claim it's a dangerous carcinogen.
Maple Leaf gained Canadian Food Inspection Agency labeling approval for the product, so the complaint is more with the CFIA than with Maple Leaf. The nitrates arise from a salt extracted from celery.
What CBC Marketplace may not know is that nitrates in processed meats has been an issue for at least 35 years, that extensive testing has been undertaken to determine the risks and benefits and that every country in the Western world approves the use of nitrates, usually sodium nitrate rather than "natural" nitrate extracted from celery.
There are plenty of other issues CBC Marketplace could tackle to greater public benefit, such as the incredible increase over the past 40 years in the volume of "pump" - i.e. brine -in hams, cracks in the packages of Grade A eggs which greatly increases the risk of food poisoning and the marketing of raw milk and raw milk products.
That's more than enough challenges to keep the CBC Marketplace busy for a season.
