P.E.I. lags behind

Mixed news for P.E.I., in Canadian food report card

Prince Edward Island lags behind the country when it comes to child food security, says a new report.

The Island was, however, the best performing Atlantic province in the Conference Board of Canada’s first food report card.

The report assessed the performance of the provinces in five categories: industry prosperity, healthy food and diets, food safety, household food security and environmental sustainability.

All four Atlantic Provinces received at least a D grade for their food performance, and are among the bottom in Canada.

P.E.I., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick all received D grades on food safety due to a high prevalence of food-borne illness.

The Island also lags most of its provincial peers on food security.

On the other hand, Prince Edward Island earned B grades in three out of five categories, making it the best performing Atlantic province overall.

Leading all provinces in per capita food manufacturing sales and food manufacturing growth, P.E.I. received a B grade on industry prosperity.

The province also earned Bs in both the healthy food and diets and environmental sustainability categories.

P.E.I.’s performance on household food security received an overall C, particularly due to child food security. The Island places last on three metrics related to food security: child food insecurity, children who were hungry but could not afford more food, and parents who could not feed children balanced meals.

Prince Edward Island’s D grade on food safety ranks it at the bottom among the provinces. P.E.I. has the highest rates of reported food-borne illness incidences, such as Listeria and Salmonella.

Saskatchewan was the best performing province in the report card with A grades on four of the five categories.