Ready, Set, Shop

While words like “natural” and “farm fresh” represent unregulated marketing spin, the same can’t be said for “organic.” Organic foods represent the gold standard in labels and quality, and this applies to both domestic and imported products.

Honouring the environment is the basic tenet behind this traditional form of farming and food production. These eco-edibles are less likely to contain synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, or hormones; genetically engineered foodstuffs; sewage sludge; or irradiated ingredients. Artificial colourings, preservatives, sweeteners, and additives are also banned.

Thanks to strong industry regulations, any item bearing the Canada Organic logo has met these stringent criteria by containing 95 percent or more organic content.

Multi-ingredient foods with 70 to 94 percent organic content can’t use the logo but can be labelled “contains X percent organic ingredients,” while foods with less than 70 percent are only allowed to identify such in the list of ingredients and can’t make content claims on packaging.

Non-GMO Project Verified

Many people know that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are plants, animals, or other live organisms that have been modified to create DNA combinations that don’t occur in nature or through traditional cross-breeding techniques. But it’s the ongoing unknowns of GMOs (potential environmental impacts and human health effects are two biggies) that may be reason enough to be concerned about them.

Buying organic (certified, ideally) is a good start, but GM ingredients can also trickle into the food chain through commercial products.

An estimated 60 to 70 percent of processed foods available in grocery stores likely contain some GMOs, including Canadian-grown GM corn, canola, soy, and white sugar beet. Other marketplace culprits are some varieties of US squash, milk products containing bovine growth hormone, cottonseed oil, and Hawaiian papaya.

In response to concerns, two grocery stores—The Big Carrot in Toronto and The Natural Grocery Company in Berkeley, California, created the Non-GMO Project in 2007. The launch of the matching butterflied label in 2010 subsequently took off and now includes more than 2,800 verified brands representing 40,000 products and $19.2 billion in sales.

The Non-GMO Project Verified label means the product has been tested and determined to contain less than 0.9 percent GMO contamination.

Fair trade

For coffee aficionados, finding homegrown beans may be a wee bit challenging, so “fairtrade” fills the cup. Almost 7,000 fairtrade certified products are sold in Canada, ranging from single items such as coffee, cocoa, fruit, sugar, and flowers to packaged items such as beauty products.

Check out Fairtrade Canada’s registered brands and products at fairtrade.ca. All of them commit to fair working conditions for workers and producers, and are distinguished by the FAIRTRADE Mark, an independent consumer label that ensures global products meet ethical and environmental standards.

Made in Canada, eh?

If supporting our farmers is your passion, look for “Product of Canada” labels, meaning all, or almost all, of the food, processing, and labour to make the food was Canadian.

Second on the patriotic table is “Made in Canada from domestic and imported ingredients,” followed by “Made in Canada from imported ingredients,” which identify consecutively fewer and fewer homegrown ingredients.

If all else fails, it never hurts to personally get to know your food suppliers for a first-hand quality check. Attend local markets, visit a farm, and ask questions about brands sold at your most frequented shops. As for eggs, there are baskets of choice to choose from depending on your purchasing preferences and pocketbook.