A Canadian food distributor was busted sending cheese falsely labeled as ‘Kosher’ to Jewish summer camps, and was ordered to pay a hefty fine.
The Toronto Star reports, Creation Foods has been ordered to pay $25,000 for contravening the Food and Drugs Act and selling falsely labelled, non-kosher cheddar to two summer camps for observant Jewish children in 2015.
The company’s forged kosher certificates were brought to the attention of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in June 2015, after an employee of The Kashruth Council of Canada (KCOC) noticed some inconsistently in the labeling on some of the boxes of cheese delivered to an overnight summer camp.
After Creation Foods was asked to submit certificates verifying the Kashrus of the cheese, a KCOC employee noticed that a digit in the product code on the certificate had been photoshopped so it would match the one on the box to make it seem like a non-kosher box of cheese was in fact kosher. The brand of cheese delivered to the camps is available in both non-kosher and kosher versions, and by forging the certificate, Creation Foods hoped to pass off the non-kosher cheese as the more expensive Kosher variety.
Both summer overnight camps, Camp Moshava near Peterborough and Camp Northland-B’nai Brith in Haliburton, told the Toronto Star that none of the non-kosher cheese was eaten by campers.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said this was the first time in Canada that a case regarding the false representation of kosher food has been brought to a court.
“The fine is significant and may lead to improved future compliance under this statute,” the CFIA said in a statement on its website. “This case, and the conviction, reinforces the CFIA’s commitment to food safety, and demonstrates how the agency takes issues related to food fraud seriously. Investigation and legal action will be taken, when warranted.”
(Nat Golden – YWN)
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One Response
I think it’s important to note that they also levied criminal charges initially that were later withdrawn in order to get the conviction in the plea deal. This was included in the Toronto Star article but not included in this version: “Kefir Sadiklar, vice-president of the family-owned Creation Foods was also charged criminally at the time, but the charges were withdrawn in June.”