A document filed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in a Delta court has accused Vancouver-based Santa Maria Foods Corp of ten criminal counts of tampering with food products since January 1996.

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Among other things, Santa Maria, the largest distributor of Italian food in Canada, has been charged with changing “best before” dates on imported dairy and meat products.


The document was filed after a lengthy investigation was conducted by the CFIA into Santa Maria. The federal agency was prompted by allegations from Santa Maria employees that dates were being changed and some products were being re-packaged to remove evidence of mould.

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