Federal agriculture minister calls food tampering in Canada a despicable act

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz MP (Facebook)

CHARLOTTETOWN — Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says food and farm tampering is a despicable and deplorable act and anyone found responsible will feel the full force of the law.

Ritz made the comment Friday as a meeting of federal and provincial agriculture ministers wrapped up in Charlottetown.

Last month, Prince Edward Island’s potato industry increased the reward it is offering to $500,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whomever is responsible for inserting metal objects into potatoes.

Ritz says an investigation by the RCMP is ongoing.

“We look forward to them finding these scoundrels and throwing the full force of the law at them. No matter who is involved, they will face a minimum of a half-million dollar fine and 18 months in jail,” Ritz said.

“I personally, along with my fellow ministers here will do everything we can to make sure they face the full force of the law.”

The federal government recently announced it will spend $1.5 million to buy metal detection equipment to help find foreign objects in potatoes from the province.

P.E.I. Agriculture Minister Alan McIsaac says the food tampering cases are having a financial impact on farmers who have to install the new equipment.

“This is dollars directly out of the pockets of our farmers here and in some cases our farmers have been shut down for six weeks while they get the equipment in place,” McIsaac said.

There have been several cases of metal objects being found in potatoes in Atlantic Canada, with most coming from a farm in P.E.I.

Police are investigating cases of metal objects found in potatoes sold in grocery stores in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.