When one considers the delicious taste that greets the mouth upon taking the first bite of a Jamaican beef patty, it’s hard to imagine that anyone, much less Canadian authorities, would have any ‘beef’ with the pastry.

Yet, according to Michael Davidson, a Jamaican immigrant who now resides in Toronto, Canada, such was exactly the case in February 1985.

In a recently released CBC documentary short, Davidson shares the tale of Toronto’s bizarre 1985 ‘patty wars’, when the Canadian government attempted to stop Jamaican bakeries and restaurants from using the term “beef patty”.

Acting in the capacity of manager of his family’s bakery, Kensington Patty Palace, while his parents were on vacation in February 1985, the young baker explained that he received an unexpected visit from a food inspector working in the Consumer and Corporate Affairs office.

During the visit, the inspector informed that Canada’s Meat Inspection Act classified a beef patty as what goes in a hamburger. As such a beef patty could only contain meat and seasoning and it could not be encased in dough or a crust.

By this standard, a Jamaican patty — widely known as a flaky pastry with a spiced beef filling — did not meet the criteria. 

Given this, bureaucrats argued that referring to the Jamaican pastry as a ‘beef patty’ would be confusing to Canadians who associated the name with hamburgers.

At the time, officials threatened Davidson and other Jamaican patty vendors, fines of CAD$5,000 if the shops were non-compliant and failed to change their menus, packaging and signs.

In the documentary, the Kensington Patty Palace manager recalls that the associated costs of changing the bakery’s name, registering a new business name and altering their sign would have set the business back CAD$10,000.

He stated: “The unnecessary burden that we were being placed under would have brought the business to a premature end.”

As such, despite the threat of exorbitant fines, the Jamaican bakeries stood their ground. Banding together, the vendors represented by Davidson refused to sell the delectable pastry under any other name.

As the controversy unfolded, politicians, lawyers and the Jamaican consulate became involved. With no clear end in sight, officials from the Office of Consumer and Corporate Affairs as well as representatives for the patty vendors met at a so-called “patty summit” on February 19, 1985. 

In the end, a compromise was made whereby, while vendors remained unable to use the term ‘beef patty’, the phrase ‘Jamaican patty’ could be utilised.

Following the decision, Davidson held a celebratory event at the Kensington Patty Place on February 23, 1985.

Since then, the date February 23 has been recognised as Patty Day in Toronto, in commemoration of the day it became okay to refer to Jamaican beef patties as ‘Jamaican patties’.

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