Driscoll's faces lawsuit over alleged pesticide limit violations in Canada

Driscoll’s is facing legal scrutiny following allegations from a former regulatory compliance official, David Harada, that approximately 50 percent of the company’s raspberry exports to Canada between 2022 and 2024 exceeded national pesticide safety limits. Harada has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging illegal retaliation after he raised concerns regarding chemical toxicity levels and claimed that corporate leadership suppressed data to protect sales.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed that inspections of Driscoll’s berry products in Canadian grocery stores identified concentrations of bifenthrin, iprodione, and captane that surpassed legal regulatory thresholds. While these findings were confirmed, federal regulators stated that the non-compliances did not trigger official consumer recalls, as corrective measures were implemented and investigations were closed.

Regulators noted that because independent growers supply produce to various marketers, a brand name alone does not necessarily trace a specific violation to a single source. Additionally, while there were consumer reports of illness potentially linked to blueberries, officials stated these could not be definitively connected to the raspberry contamination.