Some grocery stores are being accused of ‘maple washing’

'Maple Washing' stores saying products are Canadian when they're not.

Following trade tensions with the United States, many shoppers are going out of their way to buy Canadian products.

But some major grocery stores are being accused of “maple washing,” in which they claim some products are Canadian even when they’re not.

Dave, who describes himself as a secret shopper from Toronto, sent CTV News examples of two products that appear to say they are from Canada, but upon a closer look, the packaging suggests they are imported from other countries.

Dave, who asked that his first name only be used, said, “We saw that a bag of onions was mislabelled, and the green beans were also mislabelled.”

Photos provided to CTV News show green beans for sale with signage that shows “Product of Canada,” but when you take a closer look, the packaging indicates “Product of Guatemala.”

Another photo he provided shows a bag of red onions that is labelled as a product of Canada. However, another closer look at the packaging shows it is a product of Egypt.

Following complaints of “maple washing,” a Montreal law firm has launched a class-action lawsuit against major grocery chains, including Provigo, Sobey’s, Metro, and Walmart.

• READ MORE: Montrealer plans to sue major grocers over false ‘made in Canada’ labels

“This is actually false representation and false advertising,” said Joey Zukran, a lawyer with LPC Avocats.

The firm and Michael Vathilakis of Renno & Vathilakis represent the members in the class action lawsuit.

Zukran claims grocers are using false advertising to take advantage of consumers who want to support Canadian products.

“The only conclusion is that it’s being done to make a profit and to take advantage of vulnerable consumers who are at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the grocer,” said Zukran.

The class action also seeks compensation for customers.

Sylvain Charlebois, a food professor at Dalhousie University, says “maple washing” has been happening since tensions began with the U.S. and grocery stores have put the maple leaf or “Made in Canada” labels as part of the buy Canadian trend.

“We’ve seen many cases where the maple leaf was used to inflate prices and a lot of products were mislabelled in ways that are quite misleading to the public,” said Charlebois.

He says many Canadians are now paying more attention to the products they buy and checking labels carefully.

Charlebois said as prices rise, Canadians are paying closer attention to where products come from, and more are noticing mistakes, including one he was told of when a shopper saw a sign labelling oranges as a product of Canada.

“That’s clearly a mistake because we don’t grow oranges in Canada, obviously,” said Charlebois.

While stores could be forgiven for labelling confusion earlier this year as they were making adjustments, Charlebois says by now, mislabelling should be considered unacceptable.

“In February and March of this year, people were willing to accept some of these mistakes, but now we are well into September and there is zero tolerance for this now,” said Charlebois.

Secret shopper Dave said he plans to continue to search for maple washing errors because he wants to support Canadian producers.

“We personally want to support these local Canadian farmers, you know, I want to make sure that the product I’m getting is actually from Canada,” said Dave.

The class action has been filed but has not yet been authorized in court.

Consumers could complain to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and grocers who intentionally try to mislead customers could face fines of up to $15,000 per offence.