Armed With Knowledge: Government Launches Website on Recalled Products
Written By Diana Hart
Again and again, Canadians are faced with the reality that while they shop, not everything they put in their cart could be safe as the list of recalled items keeps growing. To help better inform Canadians, the federal government has created a new place to help them find out more about which products are unsafe or unhealthy.
Ottawa’s health and agriculture departments have created a website where concerned consumers can learn about the foods or children’s products that are thought to be unsafe.
Visitors to the website can search through a database by date, product name, company name or keyword to find out specifics about recalls on both children’s products and food starting from 1995.
The database links to releases from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s website and Health Canada.
The website offers a particularly thorough look at the products recalled and what consumers should do their damaged purchase. To help Canadians better recognize that the item in their children’s toy cupboard is the one being recalled, the website displays pictures of the suspected unsafe items.
Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, says in a press release announcing the site that it was important to create a single place for families to go to learn about recalls.
"When Canadians hear rumours about problems with food or product safety, they want the real facts fast, and don't want to search different Web sites to get the information," says Ritz. "With the launch of this new Web site, Canadian families will now know where to turn in situations such as children's toys being reported as unsafe, or when there's food-related issue like salmonella."
The website comes after Canadians have had to face a number of recalls, most notable a string of tainted products from China. A large number of Chinese-made toys had to be taken from their young Canadians owners in the past few months after it was repeatedly discovered a high level of lead paint could have decorate the products.
By looking through the database, Canadians are able to learn about the food advisories and recalled children’s products that may not have hit the front pages of their newspapers.
To learn about the most recent recalls that could affect you, visit www.healthycanadians.gc.ca.
