Made in Canada grocery guide: Food brands and alternatives to American products to buy as tariffs kick in
As Trump and Trudeau impose tariffs, here's a list of Canadian made products and food brands to make it easier to support our businesses at home.
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian products prompted a calculated response from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Following Trump's announcement of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports — 10 per cent tariff on energy products — Trudeau announced a retaliatory 25 per cent tariff on $155 billion of American imports including beer, wine, fruit, fruit juices, clothing, sports equipment and more.
In his Saturday night speech, Trudeau also encouraged Canadians to buy products made in Canada.
How do tariffs work? How does buying Canadian products help Canadians?
Trump's tariffs would require companies importing products from Canada to pay a 25 per cent fee to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which then goes to the General Fund of the United States. Once importing companies pay the 25 per cent or 10 per cent tariff, they will likely adjust their retail prices to recoup the funds, making Canadian products more expensive for Americans.
In order to maintain sales, Canadian manufacturers may lower their sale prices to entice American importers and offset the impact of the tariff the American company would have to pay.
Similarly, products imported from the U.S. into Canada would require Canadian importers to pay Trudeau's retaliatory 25 per cent tariff, which may require companies to raise their prices on imported goods.
Essentially, both Canadians and Americans will be paying more on imported products, which may influence consumers' buying decisions, or impact importing and exporting.
By shopping Canadian products and brands, consumers in Canada will be exempt from the tariffs, which means potentially saving money. Plus, there's the added benefit of supporting Canadian manufacturers who may be impacted by the U.S. import tariffs.
How to tell if a product is made in Canada at the grocery store
Following Trump's tariff news, some grocery stores are opting to label Canadian made products with a Canadian flag next to its price tag to help conscious shoppers. Here are some other ways to tell if a product is made in Canada:
Look for a "Product of Canada" label
This label means that approximately 98 per cent of ingredients, processing and labour used to produce the product areCanadian. According to the Government of Canada, products that claim to be "Canadian" are considered the same as "Product of Canada."
Are you thinking of buying Canadian-made products? We want to hear from you. Contact us at yahoo.canada.lifestyle.editors@yahooinc.com and you could be featured in an upcoming Yahoo Canada article.
Check for "Made in Canada" labels
When products are labelled as "Made in Canada" it means that a majority of the product's last substantial transformation occurred in Canada. A substantial transformation of a product would include combining ingredients to create a new product. For example, ingredients like eggs, sugar and butter undergo a substantial transformation to produce cookies.
A product can also have a "Made in Canada" label if a majority (at least 51 per cent) of the costs incurred in manufacturing or producing the goods were incurred in Canada even if some ingredients are from other countries.
"Made in Canada" and qualifier labels
Some packages may include qualifiers to ensure that the consumer knows some ingredients were imported from other countries.
Examples of qualifiers can include:
Distilled in Canada
Refined in Canada
Packaged in Canada
Processed in Canada
Look for 100% claims
All ingredients, processing and labour for the product (and all of its components) are from Canada.
If you're someone choosing to shop consciously given the tariffs, we've gathered a helpful list of Canadian brands and those manufactured in Canada to help you on your next grocery shop.
Canadian-made grocery store items:
Dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, butter etc.)
Instead of brands like Kraft, Land o' Lakes or Yoplait, you may want to try:
ADL
Agropur
Arla’s Foods
Black Diamond
Blakwell Dairy
Bothwell Cheese
Chapman’s
Daiya
Eagle Brand
Earth’s Own
D. Dutchmen Farms
La Fromagerie Kapuskoise
Gay Lea
Grass Root Dairies
Hewitt’s
Laiterie de Caoticook
Lactancia
Kawartha Dairy
Keenan Farms
Miller’s Dairy
Natrel
Saputo
Shaw Ice Cream
Sheldon Creek Dairy
Silani Cheese
Slate River Dairy
Skotidakis
St. Albert Cheese Factory
Tre Stelle
Triple “A” Cheese
Thunder Oak Cheese Farm
Upper Canada Creamery
Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese
Dainty
Baking & honey
Instead of brands like Pillsbury and Domino, you may want to try:
Billy Bee Honey
Club House
Doyon Honey
E.D. Smith Jam
Ferrero
Five Roses Flour
No Name
Redpath Sugar
Robin Hood Flour
Shiriff
Dr. Oetker
Wine, beer & spirits
Instead of brands like Budweiser, Coors or Makers Mark, you may want to try:
13th Street
Canadian Club
Collective Arts
Creemore Springs
Crown Royal
Dillon's
Forty Creek
Georgian Bay
Labatt Blue
Molson Canadian
Moosehead
Redstone
Tawse
Bread, grains and cereals:
Instead of brands like Kellogg's, Nature's Own and Dave's Killer Bread, you may want to try:
Arva Flour Mills
Casa Mendoza
Country Harvest
D’Italiano
Dempsters (manufactured in Canada)
Gadoua
Goh Goh Cereal
Holy Crap Cereal
K2 Milling
La Milanaise
Little Northern Bakehouse
Nature's Path
NorQuin
O’Doughs
One Degree Organics
Rogers
Sunny Boy Foods
Sunny Crunch Foods
Stone Mill Bakehouse
Yumi Organics
Wonder (manufactured in Canada)
Note: Wonder manufactures products in Canada, but is not a Canadian company.
Meats & poultry
Instead of brands like Oscar Meyer, Hormel or Tyson Foods, you may want to try:
Direct Plus Food Group: Grimm's Fine Foods, McSweeney's, Country Prime Meats, Saporé Foods, and Audrey's Patisserie
Freybye
Greenfield Nautural Meat Co.
Harvest Meats
Lou’s Kitchen
Maple Leaf Foods
Sofina Foods: Janes, Lilydale, Mastro, San Daniele, Riserva, Cuddy, Vienna, Fletcher’s, Zamzam
Tony’s Meats
Snack foods, cookies, chips & popcorn
Instead of brand's like Nabisco, Lays or Doritos, you may want to try:
Camino Chocolate
Celebration Cookies
Krack-O-Pop
Dare Foods
Ganong Chocolates
Georgian Bay Granola Company
Hardbite
Hawkins Cheezies
Hummingbird Chocolate
Inno Foods
Johnvince FoodsP
Kerrs Canady
La Cocina Tortilla Chips
La Montagne Chocolates
Lady Sarah Cookies
Laura Secord Chocolates
Leclerc
Made Good Foods
Maple Leaf CookiesA
MDR
Nomz
Old Dutch
OMG!
Peace by Chocolate
Purdy's Chocolate
Ronnie's Original Jumbo Seeds
Ross Chocolates
Skippy’s Kettlecorn
Sun-Rype
Uncle Bob's Popcorn
Voortman
Zak Organics Food
Condiments & seasoning
Instead of brands like Heinz, Hidden Valley and Tobasco, you may want to try:
Buster Rhino BBQ Sauce
French's Mustard
Fire in the Kitchen
Greetalia Foods
GoBio! Organics
Heartbeat Hot Sauce
Kozlik’s Canadian Mustard
Little Creek (Salad Dressings)
PEI Sea Salt Co.
Peppermaster Hot Sauces
Renées
Silk Road Spices
Spice of Life Selections
The Ketchup Project
Vancouver Sea Salt
Windsor Salt
Note: Heinz has a manufacturing facility in Canada, but is not a Canadian brand.
Coffee
Instead of brands like Starbucks or Folgers, you may want to try:
Balzac’s Coffee Roasters
Bean North Roasting
Beaver Rock Roastery
Coastal Coffee Company
Fratello Coffee Roasters
Grounded Coffee Company
Jumping Bean Coffee
Just Us Coffee
Laughing Whale
Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters
Muskoka Roastery Coffee Co.
Nabob
Salt Spring Coffee
Salt Spring Coffee
Kintore Coffee Co.
Van Houtte
Tea
Instead of brands like Lipton, you may want to try:
3 Teas
Amoda Tea
Auras Teas
Blue Teapot
Capital Tea
ChaNoir
Citizen Tea
David’s Tea
Distincly Tea
Escarpment Gardens
Four O’Clock Teas
Just Tea
Premium Tea
Red Rose Tea
Shanti Tea
Tea Desire
Tea Santa
Tealchemy
Tealish
The Naked Leaf
The Tea Haus
Four O’Clock Teas
Drinks (soft drinks, juices)
Instead of brands like Coca Cola, PepsiCo or Tropicana, you may want to try:
Allen’s
Apple & Eve
Clearly Canadian
Canada Dry
Del Monte
Fairly Fruit
Graves
Great Value
Happy Parent
Hydra+
Kiju bilogique
Naya Bottled Water
Northland
Oasis
Old Orchard
Old South
PC Cola
Rougemont
Ruby Kist
SunRype
Switch
The Pop Shoppe
Walter Caesar
Note: Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have manufacturing facilities in Canada, but are not Canadian brands.
Frozen foods:
Instead of brands like Green Giant or Stouffer's, you may want to try:
Arcitc Gardens
Compliments
Cavendish Farms
Green Giant
Conscious
High Liner Goods
M&M Foods
McCain Foods
Nature’s Path
President’s Choice
Toilet paper & paper products
Instead of brands like Charmin or Scott, you may want to try:
Cascades
Cashmere
Kirkland
Purex
Royale
Laundry detergent & dish soap
Instead of brands like Palmolive or Dawn, you may want to try:
Tru Earth
Nature Clean
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