This past week, food news had an ongoing theme surrounding food awareness and production.
To begin, peaches have stolen the salmonella spotlight from red onions, as they are now being recalled after causing 14 hospitalizations.
Buying contaminated produce may not be the first problem for those in Little Burgundy in Montreal. Due to the inaccessibility of affordable groceries, a new pilot program with autonomous shuttle is being considered.
For those who are able to have their food delivered rather than hitting the grocery store, you probably have noticed that Foodora and its bright pink bags have disappeared. After exiting Canada in April, the union of workers at Foodora have just recently won a settlement over unfair labour practices.
Many food producers struggle to launch their businesses due to the high costs involved, so in B.C., the Sea to Forest food hub was introduced to help small food producers expand their production.
Finally, youth in Canada have a chance to get their film screened at a food festival and to win $1000 in prizes.
Peaches the latest produce to be involved in salmonella outbreak
After an outbreak of salmonella linked to onions hit Canada, peaches are now taking over this spotlight. A warning for fresh peaches has been issued in Canada after a salmonella outbreak occurred in the U.S., which has caused 68 illnesses and 14 hospitalizations across nine states. Canadians are being warned not to buy peaches under any of the following brand names: Harvest Sweet, Sweet 2 Eat, Prima, Sweet Value, Wawona, Wegmans and Extrafresh.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has classified this fresh peach recall as Class 1, or "high risk", because the peaches are still on sale and have a high chance of being in people's homes. The CFIA urges Canadians to look into their fruit bowls to check the stickers on their peaches. If the brands mentioned above are found, they should either be thrown out or returned to the place of purchase.
Read more about this from the CBC.
Autonomous grocery shuttles comes Montreal
To help combat the challenges of accessing affordable fresh foods in the upscale neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Université du Québec à Montréal and Quartier de L'innovation have teamed up in a research project to test the viability of a fully-automated driverless shuttle that can pick people up and drop them off at grocery stores. In addition to acting as a shuttle for grocery runs, it would take people to community centres to receive support in other facets of life. For many in this community, considered a “food desert” (an urban area where affordable fresh food is inaccessible), walking is the only form of transportation. This is a problem, as the closest grocery stores are above an expressway with limited pedestrian access.
Researchers are now seeking input from the community about the value of this program.
Read more about the program from CBC.
The Sea to Forest food hub helps local businesses produce food
The Sea to Forest food hub recently launched in Port Alberni, B.C., turning an old fish processing plant into a shared food processing facility where smaller producers aiming to scale up their production and expand their business can do so without the financial burden associated with typical expansions. This not only gives small businesses a helping hand in getting off the ground, but it also creates more jobs and enables more food to be processed locally. Currently, the companies using this facility are Flurer Smokery, Cascadia Seaweed, Nova Harvest Oysters and Canadian Seafood Processing.
Read more fro CBC.
Foodora's union wins $3.46M legal battle
Earlier this year, Foodora cited an increasingly saturated market and high levels of competition as the reasons for their withdrawal from Canada. The timing of the decision, which lined up with the Canadian workers’ winning the right to unionize, and Foodora’s profits in the first-quarter of 2020 led to a union claim of unfair labour practices against Foodora, which resulted in a $3.46M settlement this week.
Read more about this from Global News.
Young filmmakers urged to create short film on climate change and food
The 2020 Nourish Nova Scotia Food & Film Challenge is now live for school-aged children and youth who love making movie magic. This year's theme is climate change and food. The winning film will be screened at Devour! The Food and Film Fest and the creators will win $500 that will go towards their school to support a healthy eating program, and a $500 GoPro Kit.
The deadline for submissions is Oct. 12, and the submissions must be under three minutes long.
Read more about this challenge from CBC.
