Angry in the Great White North

The Globe and Mail has written up the story of the counterfeit Colgate toothpaste, and has added a lot of extra useful information:

Health Canada is investigating suspected counterfeit toothpaste found in Southern Ontario that is similar to a product at the centre of a health recall throughout the United States because of fears it contains an ingredient used in antifreeze.

Steve Janke, 40, bought a tube of what purports to be Colgate brand toothpaste labelled as being manufactured in South Africa from a dollar store in Guelph, Ont.

The packaging was missing the French translation found on most Canadian products and the 100-millilitre tube was labelled as being manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive (PTY) Ltd. in South Africa.

We now know how the stuff got into the country:

Wahid Choksi, who owns a chain of discount stores called Everything for a Dollar Store, said he has taken the inventory off the shelves.

"I called all my stores and I told them to remove it from the shelves as soon as possible and they have removed it," Mr. Choksi said Monday. It was unclear last night how many tubes had been sold by Mr. Choksi.

He said he also alerted his supplier, Toronto-based FHT Enterprises Inc. He had ordered the toothpaste from the company on March 26 and was shown a sample with a Canadian label, he said.

Athar Tayyabi, of FHT, said he was also shown a Canadian sample before importing 1,440 tubes from a company in New York. He said Mr. Choksi's chain was the only client he had sold them to.

"I'm going to throw it in the garbage," he said of the remaining inventory. Mr. Tayyabi would not disclose the name of his American supplier.

Mr Tayyabi might be more forthcoming to Health Canada:

Health Canada is taking the discovery seriously.

A spokesman for Health Canada, Paul Duchesne, said the agency would investigate the potential counterfeit toothpaste and will take "appropriate compliance and enforcement action," if necessary.

I hope too, that there is an effort to inform consumers who may have already bought the toothpaste to check it. Though the spelling errors were on the cardboard packaging and not on the tube itself, the tube is a 100ml size, a size not normally sold in Canada.

Since this morning, I've done two radio spots, and have two TV interviews coming up. I've seen the story reprinted online on several smaller sites, as well as on CTV.

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