A Chinese supermarket in Canada has recently been severely punished by regulatory authorities for repeatedly violating food hygiene regulations. It has been fined a total of CAD 8,100 within a year and its food business license has been suspended, temporarily prohibiting it from continuing to operate. Three violations in one year, all due to hygiene issues.
According to MTL Blog, the supermarket in question is Marché C&T, located in Boulevard Laurentien, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montreal. Currently, the store is on the local regulatory list of stores with suspended food business licenses and cannot resume operations until it completes rectification and passes a re-inspection. According to food safety penalty records published by Quebec’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ), this supermarket has been penalized three times in the past year for the same issue—failing to maintain food processing facilities, equipment and utensils that meet Quebec’s hygiene and cleanliness standards.
The specific penalties are as follows: The violation occurred on March 21, 2025, and a ruling was made on February 16, 2026, imposing a fine of CAD 1,600.
The violation occurred on May 7, 2025, and a ruling was made on December 2, 2025, imposing a fine of CAD 3,000.
The violation occurred on September 16, 2025, and a ruling was made on April 15, 2026, imposing a fine of CAD 3,500.
In just one year, a total of $8,100 in fines were levied, and all three incidents were due to the same repeated hygiene issues. Under Quebec’s Food Products Act, if a regulatory authority deems a food business to pose a “high risk”—meaning the business has failed to effectively control food safety risks and inspectors have repeatedly found similar problems—it has the authority to suspend its food business license. Marché C&T was suspended from business for this reason. Another store operated by the same person was also fined.
MAPAQ records also show that another store owned by Québec Inc. (9259-7269), the company that operates Marché C&T, located on Taschereau Boulevard in Brossard, also received a fine. However, this violation was unrelated to hygiene or environmental conditions. Regulatory authorities discovered that the store was selling unpackaged live bivalve shellfish (such as oysters and mussels) without labelling the harvest zone and harvest date as required.
This information is crucial for tracing the origin of shellfish products and is mandatory labelling by law. The violation occurred on October 16, 2025, was adjudicated on February 9, 2026, resulting in a fine of CAD 500, and was officially announced on February 17, 2026.However, the Brossard store was not suspended because the violation was unrelated to the hygiene issues that led to the closure of the Montreal store. It is understood that Marché C&T currently has four stores in Quebec and is a well-known Chinese supermarket chain in the area. The food business license was suspended only for the Montreal store in question, not the entire chain. After being suspended from business, can it resume operations?
It is worth noting that the suspension of the food business license is not a permanent closure. Businesses must first complete the necessary rectifications to address the issues that led to their designation as “higher risk,” and then undergo a second inspection by MAPAQ. They can only resume operations after regulatory authorities confirm that the store has met food safety standards.
Therefore, the fact that a supermarket has been fined or even suspended from business does not mean that food safety risks still exist after it resumes operations. In fact, the store will only be allowed to reopen once MAPAQ confirms that all issues have been rectified and the store passes subsequent inspections. In other words, suspending business operations is a temporary measure taken by regulatory authorities to protect public food safety; resuming business operations means that the relevant food safety risks have been resolved.