Canadians getting sick trying to cut food costs: study

A new study finds that one in five Canadians believe they have fallen ill as a result of eating unsafe food because they didn’t want to throw it out.

More than half of 9,000 people surveyed by Dalhousie’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab say they are willing to eat food that was close to or past its best-before date.

“Fifty-eight per cent are actually more enticed to eat a product that is close or past its best-before date, more so than last year, as a result of higher food prices,” Sylvain Charlebois, the director of the analytics lab tells CityNews. “That’s certainly one number that surprised us. It’s much higher than expected.”

It’s important to remember that a best-before date isn’t an expiry date. Food past the best-before date can still be edible but won’t necessarily keep freshness, taste or nutritional value. But Charlebois says it’s still a risk, one that more Canadians are taking. He says a positive take might be that Canadians are producing less food waste, but given the affordability crisis, it reflects that some people don’t have money for fresher food.

“Statistics Canada came out with new numbers this week on retail sales and if you look at food sales per capita, it’s still down at $243 per capita,” says Charlebois. “That’s the lowest it’s been in many, many years.”

Food Banks Canada says they’re not surprised by the study. Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey, which was released Friday, shows a similar situation. Statscan found 23 per cent – or nearly nine million Canadians – lived in food insecure households in 2022, an increase of almost 1.8 million people from the previous year. It marked the second consecutive year of increases since the pandemic began.

Food Banks Canada’s own figures also show sharp increases in food bank usage.

“We are seeing that people are struggling. We’re seeing that through increased visits, we’re seeing that through increased need,” said Richard Matern, the director of research at Food Banks Canada.

“This confirms what we saw a year ago, when food bank usage reached its highest levels. We saw two million visits in a month alone last year and that was the highest we’ve ever seen, which was a 30 per cent increase from a year before, and an almost 80 per cent increase from before the pandemic.”