Thomas Canning Ltd. of Maidstone has been fined $40,000
after pleading guilty to labeling canned tomato products as organic.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency pressed charges related
to product canned between September, 2013, and July 2015.
The company is the only one that has been allowed to operate
as both a tomato grower and processor.
Processing companies are not allowed to vertically integrate
into farming vegetables for processing, but farmers are allowed to vertically
integrate into processing under regulations enforced by the Ontario Processing
Vegetable Growers marketing board.
Since the directors were dismissed earlier this year and the
board taken over by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, it’s no
longer clear whether that regulation will continue to be enforced.
