Lawsuit claims about 50% of shipments from 2022-24 had fruit exceeding Canadian safety levels

Driscoll’s berries are on many Canadians’ plates and all over Canadian grocery stores, with their tagline claiming to be “only the finest berries.”

But a whistleblower lawsuit in California alleges the finest berries were not sent to Canada: instead, millions of pounds of fruit containing non-compliant levels of pesticides and chemicals crossed the border, and the company tried to cover it up.

California resident and former Driscoll’s employee David Harada claims in the lawsuit that by Driscoll’s own estimates, about 50 per cent of all shipments to Canada from 2022 to 2024 had fruit that exceeded Canadian safety levels.

  • gh0stb4tz@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I just learned a few months ago about how unsafe these berries are to eat. My family and I avoid this company’s products at all costs now.

    • myyass@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I just learned this. I wonder if my lips tingling was because of this and not just being fruit.

      • RidgeDweller@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Also, a lot of ag producers will till biosolids into their fields as fertilizer, which are the leftover spoils from sewage treatment plants. The biosolids are supposed to be composted enough to kill off harmful microbes, but sometimes they don’t get up to kill step temp.

        Regardless of complete composting, they usually have residual chemicals that are in the wastewater stream that aren’t removed in wastewater treatment, like pissed out pharma drugs/metabolites, random household chemicals and hazardous waste, PFAs, etc.

        More info covering the scope of the problem here. Anecdotal coverage of farmers being left with unusable toxic land here.

        • BeBopALouie@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          Thank you. Eloquently put. What I was try to say about sewage spillover with waste from humans with whatever drugs etc they take out into the sewers.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        you might want to pick a better word than ‘shitty’ when talking about feeding plants considering what fertilizer is.

        • BeBopALouie@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          There’s a difference between fertilizer and shit in the ground water used to feed the plants.

    • GreenM@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Not all hems can be washed simply by rinsing , others are within. Otherwise simple rain would do the job .