Iran war increases food packaging costs

Food packaging costs are rising because of the war in Iran, said Christopher Mejía Argueta, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. 

Most processed foods are packaged in plastics derived from oil.

Just as oil price increases have put up prices for gasoline, diesel and fertilizer, they will certainly impact food packaging.

Agueta said there are alternatives such as glass, reuseables and recycling, but none of those are easy or cheap alternatives.

Glass is also much heavier and fragile.

Even if returns, such as glass, are used, there are added transportation costs, he said, and the challenge of converting packaging lines.

There is already a shortage of truck drivers, he said, so ir will be a challenge to truck returns.

Three cheese-related recalls

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has posted three cheese-related recalls because of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes food-poisoning bacteria.

They are Hello Fresh meal kits that include cheese ingredients, cheese products distributed to hotels, restaurants and cafeterias and Auricchio brand Taleggio D.O.P cheese

CFIA tests revealed the contaminations.

No illnesses have been reported.

Agri Stats agrees to limit its data sharing

Agri Stats has consistently denied wrong-doing in class-action lawsuits in the pork, chicken, turkey and beef industriesm, but in a court settlement in Minnesota it agreed to significant changes to its reporting practices if pork reports resume.

That settlement of a class-action lawsuit resulted in $212.2 million for consumers.

Triumph Foods is on the hook for $4.1 million.

The changes Agri Stats agreed to make include eliminating sales reports, removing certain plant-level data and restricting how subscriber information is shared. 

The settlements followed earlier agreements with other defendants, including JBS, Smithfield, Tyson, Seaboard, Clemens Group and Hormel.

Farm wins drainage appeal

 

 Cassels Cook Farms Inc. has won an appeal it filed against South Perth municipality for drain work related to its 98-acre farm.

It was facing a bill of about $9,000 for open drain works. That was reduced to zero.

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Agribusiness and Food Appeal Tribunal also reduced an assessment of $36.420 for a culvert under Highway 7 to $25,614.

Owner Dave Cook did not know that part of his property is zoned for industrial development. The tribunal ruled that if and when it is developed, the drainage bills could be re-visited.

Maple Syrup scam spotted

A maple syrup scam by a Quebec producer has been spotted by a reporter for French-language CBC radio.

He thought syrup he bought tasted different, so it had it tested at a laboratory.

It was half cane sugar, so he bought five more cans at the same grocery store and had them tested at centre ACER and all five were half cane sugar.

The syrup was labelled pure maple syrup and made by Steve Bourdeau of Saint-Chrysostome southwest of Montreal.

 His numbered company 9227-8712 Québec inc. markets under the name "Érablière Steve Bourdeau."

A milk scam on the internet

 

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said  it has received 12 reports since March 25 of phishing texts claiming the victim is eligible for a payout in a Canadian milk class action. 

Based on its experience, it believes about 10 times more people have received the scam message.

In fact there is no payout available to milk buyers.

There is, however, a payout on offer for clients of Silk which is a plant-based product marketed as a substitute for milk.

This scam is not part of that settlement with Danone whose contractor failed to eliminate food-poisoning bacteria from the Silk it made for Danone.

That contractor has since declared bankruptcy and another contractor is making Silk for Danone’s customers in Canada.

Cod population may not be recovering

Scientists are questioning the federal government’s decision to allow fishing for Northern cod to resume because the fish population is classified as healthy.

The scientists say the population has not increased, but what has changed is the government’s method of counting and classifying what qualifies as “healthy”.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada completed its latest assessment for the northern cod stock, estimating the population to be in the “healthy zone” with a 70 per cent probability under newly defined benchmarks. 

The classification has changed more than the underlying reality in the water, the critics said.

Under the new assessment the “healthy zone” is defined as 80 per cent of biomass at maximum sustainable yield, a benchmark that falls short of stronger conservation standards and relies heavily on modelled outputs with significant uncertainties, the critics said.

They said scientists and conservationists warn that the designation is overly optimistic and should not be interpreted as a full recovery or used to justify increased fishing pressure.

Rebecca Schijns, a fishery scientist for Oceana Canada, said while there are some positive signals of recovery, they must be weighed against persistent red flags and the broader context of northern cod rebuilding. 

Just a few years ago, this same amount of fish was considered critically depleted, and the stock remains well below historically healthy and productive levels, she said.

“We’ve seen this before for cod — optimism racing ahead of evidence, quotas rising too fast, and a stock pushed back toward depletion,” Schijns said.

 

“Scientific uncertainty remains high. The assessment model is comprehensive but unstable, total catches are not fully accounted for, and critical ecosystem signals persist. Declaring success too early risks creating a false sense of recovery.

 

“Cod recovery is inseparable from ecosystem conditions, particularly the availability of capelin, which is alarmingly low at roughly 20 per cent of pre-collapse biomass levels.  

Yet this relationship is not adequately reflected in quota decisions. A precautionary, ecosystem-based approach is essential,” she said.