Angry in the Great White North

The toothpaste is Active Fluoride Toothpaste (Whitening) in a 4.5 oz size. It comes with a free toothbrush. It is manufactued by...well, it's not clear who manufacturers it. It is distributed by Euro Impex Marketing of New York, and it was made in India.

Now with all that has happened, it ought to be clear the consumers ought to know, as much as possible, where products are made and by whom. I was able to figure out who made this toothpaste, but only by running the UPC (6 72935 10331 8) through the UPC database and figuring out where the phone number provide for customer comments (1 866 373 7374) goes to.

The UPC reveals that this product is made by Sunehari Exports of India. The phone number takes you to the US company Dr Fresh, headquartered in California.

Sunehari owns the domain for the Dr Fresh website, and through some more research I discovered that Dr Fresh is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sunehari. It is run by Dr Puneet Nanda, who helped operate the toothbrush and dental floss concern Sunehari, and then came to America to create the very successful Dr Fresh operation.

Nothing in my research suggested that Dr Fresh or Sunehari products are a concern for consumers. I ought to be very clear on that.

So why would I say that this toothpaste ought not to be sold in a Canadian dollar store?

First, it took me some time to track down the origins of the toothpaste. The average consumer would not be likely to do so, and had I disovered that it was really made in China, then we would have had a problem on our hands. The lack of transparency with regards to who made the toothpaste should give store owners pause before putting it on the shelf.

Second, this toothpaste tube lacks a DIN number from Health Canada which confirms the efficacy of the product and that it is consistent with Canadian standards. Whereas a month ago, this might have seemed to be a minor point, with the recent events, the lack of a DIN number should be enough to put the product back in the shipping box.

But in this case, it turns out that the toothpaste was made by a reputable firm that sells in the United States. So why do I insist that no store should put these tubes on the shelf?

Simple, really.

The expiry date for the toothpaste is August 2006. That's ten months ago. The same date is printed on the box as appears on the crimped end of the tube itself.

Does toothpaste expire? Yes it does. The chemicals destabilize and break down, and the product becomes less effective. Of course, in any situation like this, there is a risk that the byproducts of the destabilization are harmful toxins, though from what I could tell, that is not obviously the case with the components of this particular brand of toothpaste, but then I can't be certain one way or the other.

But the expiry date is there for a reason.

Apu to Homer: "Now go
change the expiry dates
on the dairy products!"

Health Canada does not recommend the use of any health product beyond the expiry date, but recognizes that in general, health products simply grow weaker over time, and not dangerous. There are exceptions, like tetracycline which can cause kidney failure when taken past the expiry date, but toothpaste does not fall into that category.

This advice concerning expired health products is aimed at Canadians who might have an old tube of toothpaste in the back of the medicine cabinet. For shopkeepers, however, a basic respect for the customer should prevent them from even offering the expired product for sale.

But in a dollar store, I get the feeling that the attitude is different. And that's too bad.

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