Canada bans sale of Irn Bru, Marmite and Ovaltine

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is making headlines on both sides of the pond after it banned a British specialty food store from importing popular foods from the U.K., including the famed spread Marmite.

The food agency confirmed Friday it rejected at the border in Montreal a number of products imported from the U.K. by Brit Foods, a company that runs stores specializing in British products in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

Tony Badger of Brit Foods said he was ordered to stop selling a host of products beloved by British expats, including soft drink Irn-Bru and hot drink mix Ovaltine.

The shopkeeper has been making headlines in the U.K. after he warned that inspectors are cracking down on products sold at his stores.

"We’ve been operating since … 1997 and always believing that the products we were bringing in met Canadian standards and in fact we were not in violation," Badger told CTV News Channel Friday.

In a statement, the CFIA said the shipment was rejected at the border in Montreal because it contained meat products that were not accompanied by the required documentation.

“All meat imported from the UK must be accompanied by a certificate issued by the exporting country,” the statement said. “The products containing meat in this shipment were not accompanied by the required documentation.”

But Badger has also been told he can't import into Canada such iconic products as the love-it-or-hate it brewer's yeast spread Marmite, the soft drink touted for boosting energy Lucozade, Penguin chocolate biscuits, and Ovaltine, which are all apparently enriched with too many vitamins and minerals.

The bright-orange, caffeinated soft drink Irn-Bru contains an ingredient the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has told Badger is unapproved for sale in this country.

Not steel girders, as Irn-Bru ads once claimed, but the red food colouring Ponceau 4R.

Even canned soups were caught up in the seizure, Badger said, because they contain too much animal product.

The items were all part of an estimated 700-case shipment Badger says the inspection agency seized.

The loss, which he estimates at $20,000, threatens to put him out of business and leave a great many expats unhappy.