COMPAS Inc. Public Opinion and Customer Research

COMPAS Poll/Survey

July 16, 2007

Serious Risks from Overseas Food Imports: Urgent Need for Stronger Labeling on Food, Better Laws against Counterfeit and Substandard Products

A Weekly BDO Dunwoody CEO Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post

Categories:

Consumer and Lifestyle

Business and Finance

In the wake of news reports about health and safety risks from imported dog food, counterfeit toothpaste, and imported fish products, the COMPAS panel of CEOs and business leaders were asked about the magnitude of the risk and what government should do.

With rare exceptions, panelists see serious risks to Canadians from

Counterfeit food and over-the-counter products;

Fish from China and south-east Asia; and

North American food products with ingredients imported from Asia.

Panelists are far less concerned about non-digestible items, notably hardware products.

Panelists feel that the Canadian legal system is far too weak in its ability to allow Canadian firms to take action in the event of counterfeit or substandard imports.

As for food imports, panelists call for stronger efforts to protect consumers, notably by requirements for labeling the origins of the ingredients in a food product and not just its place of manufacture.

These are the key findings from the past week’s web survey of the COMPAS CEO and business leader panel undertaken for The Financial Post under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP

View / Download complete poll in PDF