Avoiding Corn in Canada
Avoiding Corn in CanadaDetermining whether ingredients are ambiguous especially applies to ingredients of ingredients. Sometimes you have to get a bit creative and guess what these might be. For instance, a prepackaged tuna salad sandwich might list “tuna salad” as an ingredient. The mayonnaise in the tuna salad could be made with corn oil and/or corn starch, dextrose, etc., since some prepackaged products are exempt from the Canadian legal requirement to list all ingredients.
- The kinds of prepackaged products exempt from listing ingredients of ingredients are: mixtures of nuts, individual portions of snacks served in restaurants, roasted or barbecued or broiled meat or poultry baked on the premises of food stores, and “prepackaged individual servings of food that are prepared by a commissary and sold by automatic vending machines or mobile canteens,” such as prepackaged sandwiches, according to our Food and Drug Regulations, B.01.008).
As well, certain ingredients of ingredients are almost never required to be listed. Ingredients that can be listed without listing their ingredients include margarine, shortening, starches, modified starches, graham flour, baking powder, jams and jellies (if they are 5% of a prepackaged product or less), hydrolyzed plant protein, spice or seasoning preparations, and a number of other minor constituents of prepackaged products. (This is described in our Food and Drug Regulations, B.01.009). See also the warning below.
NEW! On July 26, 2008, Canada announced new regulatory amendments to the requirements for listing ingredients of ingredients of prepackaged food. Unfortunately, corn products are not among the ingredients that will now need to be flagged.
Most breads and baked goods (such as pizza crusts, muffins, cookies, rotis, and so on) contain corn. Pitas, dark rye bread and rye rusks are less likely than other baked goods to contain corn.
Most cereals contain corn, but health food stores can be a good source of corn-free cereals. Also, many major supermarkets now produce house brands of cereal that do not contain corn.
Health food stores are also an excellent source of prepared dishes made without corn products.
If you are sensitive to corn, be prepared to make many dishes from scratch. One of the best ways to find corn-free recipes is to use old cookbooks (1940s and earlier). These cookbooks usually give clear instructions on how to make many North American and Western European recipes using basic ingredients and kitchen tools. The recipes themselves are less fussy and pretentious than more recently issued gourmet cookbooks because they were written for people who had to cook every day to feed their families. Cookbooks from the 1940s also often feature a section on preparing dishes with pressure cookers. (I highly recommend modern pressure cookers!)
Another option is to seek out recipes from regions that traditionally do not use corn (i.e. Europe and Asia). It is relatively easy to find both old cookbooks for purchase and free corn-free recipes from all over the world online.
American food labeling laws are stricter than Canadian ones in some respects. Corn syrup is more likely to appear as “corn syrup” in American products and “glucose-fructose,” etc. in Canadian ones. (Just compare cans of Coke from each country to see the difference!)
Products coming from Europe sometimes are not relabeled following the Canadian market rules. In such cases, corn can go by “sweetcorn” or “maize.” Products produced in Europe or manufactured elsewhere for the European market may also have corn-derived sweeteners, thickeners, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and so on listed in their ingredients as E-numbers rather than words. This site provides a good list of what the E-numbers stand for. The ones most likely to contain corn are starch-derived thickeners, stabilizers and emulsifiers in the series E14xx (the “xx” can be any 2-digit number).
FYI, the European Commission issued a revision to its Directive 2001/83/EC in July 2003, called “Excipients in the label and package leaflet of medicinal products for human use.” It is much like the Canadian legal situation: corn and corn derivatives are not among the foods or fillers the EC deems imperative to indicate in ingredient lists. (See the press release, which is more intelligible than the official document (PDF): "Directive 2003/89/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 November 2003 amending Directive 2000/13/EC as regards indication of the ingredients present in foodstuffs.")
Also beware of hominy, grits and polenta, all of which are pure corn. Finally, huitlacoche or cuitlacoche (otherwise known as Ustilago maydis, or corn smut) is a kind of fungus that transforms corn kernels into a delicacy – if you can eat corn, that is.
If you live in an area that stocks kosher foods, check out the kosher aisles around Passover (around the same time as Easter, in April, although grocery stores generally begin stocking Kosher for Passover products in March). Many products that normally contain corn are made in special corn-free lots for this holiday. These products will clearly say “Kosher for Passover” on them. (Usually the corn syrup, corn starch, etc. is replaced by potato syrup and potato starch, and the corn oil replaced with cottonseed. Kosher for Passover Coke has even gathered a sort of cult following in the USA – Coke aficionados swear it tastes better than Coke made with corn syrup. But beware – there are exceptions: “kitniyot,” foods forbidden in Ashkenazi tradition from being eaten during Passover, and which include corn products, are permitted during Passover and all year round in Sephardi households. Always read the ingredients!). You can stock up on cookies, salami, cold cuts, ice cream, and all sorts of sweets – including my personal favourite – corn-free marshmallows. Most of this stuff freezes well, too, so you can buy enough to last for a few months instead of waiting a whole year to have junk food again.
Many organic products are corn-free.
The following list is for your information only. I am not endorsing these above any other corn-free products that might exist. These are just a few brands that I know are available in southern Ontario.
Western Creamery dairy products
Sealtest cream
Saugeen Country Yogurt (my favourite yogurt)
Astro Original Balkan Style Yogourt
President's Choice makes a nice corn-free “wheat squares” cereal rather like Shreddies™
Molly B's Gourmet Organic Gluten-Free Kitchen (that's a mouthful!) makes awesome corn-free butter tarts
There is no corn-free meal replacement that I know of for sale in Canada, and I have been looking for years. If you find one, let me know!
WARNING! Vega, the first vegan meal replacement formula on the market, was supposedly free from corn. However, all three flavour formulations contain small amounts of corn derivatives (maltodextrin, dextrose, etc., and xanthan gum) from a source likely to contain corn. I found this out by emailing and phoning the company on January 9th and 10th, 2008. The company has been responsible and has removed the words “corn free” from its new packaging – but not yet from its website.
