Protect Our Produce

Click here to sign the House of Commons e-petition for mandatory labelling of genetically engineered foods. Deadline November 2, 2025. Please sign and share.

The new genetic engineering (genetic modification or GM) techniques of gene editing could mean many new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) coming to the market, in particular GM whole fruits and vegetables. There are three genetically engineered fresh fruits and vegetables on the market in Canada: GM sweet corn, GM papaya, and a GM pink-fleshed pineapple, but these products are not widely available. Genetic engineering in Canadian diets is still dominated by processed food ingredients – from GM corn, GM canola, GM soy and GM sugar beet. There is no mandatory labelling of GM foods in Canada.

Update – October 2025: CBAN has confirmed that GM squash, which was grown in the United States and legal to import for food since 1998, has been discontinued for 2026.

CBAN Report – October 2025: Gene-Edited Fruits and Vegetables: The Threat of New GMOs in Canada

Frequently Asked Questions: Protect Our Produce FAQ
Report: No GMO Salad Update and Action Report, June 10, 2025
Guide: CBAN’s Guide to Securing Your Non-GMO Produce Section

You can help Protect Our Produce and take action to advocate for a Non-GMO Produce Section.

Your voice as a customer is the most powerful voice that influences store policy.

Take Action

Write to the head office of your grocery store

Send a short email to your grocery store. Demand that your store pledges to carry only non-GMO fruits and vegetables. Tell them:

You do not want to eat GMO fruits and vegetables
You do not want to eat GM gene-edited fruits or vegetables that can come to the market without government safety assessments
You want the store to commit to a non-GMO produce section to make it easy for you to choose

Click here for the email addresses for the grocery stores.

Let CBAN know. Please tell us about your action and send us any response from your grocery store. Contact Fionna at outreach@cban.ca or 249- 532-0340 

Other actions you can take

Write to your Member of Parliament

Help advocate for transparency and choice in our food system. Ask your Member of Parliament to urgently reinstate government regulation for all gene-edited foods, including mandatory labelling for all GMOs. You can look up your MP using your postal code at ourcommons.ca. For more information to take this action, see cban.ca/transparency

More Information

Biotechnology companies want to release a new flood of genetically engineered (genetically modified or GM) fruits and vegetables made with the new genetic engineering techniques of genome editing, also called gene editing. These techniques are new ways to genetically engineer plants and animals to express new traits. Tools such as CRISPR aim to delete DNA segments or otherwise change a DNA sequence. Unlike traditional plant and animal breeding, genetic engineering makes changes directly to the genetic make-up of organisms in the laboratory. Gene editing can also speed up the development of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

In Canada, these new GMOs can be released without government safety assessments or labelling for consumers. In 2022 and 2023, the federal government removed pre-market regulation for most gene-edited seeds and the foods from those plants, such that these new GMOs can enter the market without a government approval process and without any mandatory notification to the government or public.