Kathleen Boylan of the Winnipeg-based Waste Reduction Store, says she wondered if utensils destined for use by competitors at the Vancouver Olympics would meet high standards for composting. (CBC)A supplier of biodegradable cutlery for the athletes village at the Vancouver Olympics says he switched to a different product after questions were raised about whether or not his original choice would meet high standards for composting.

"You know what? It's been a learning [process]," Gabriel Gallimore, president of Gallimore Healthcare in Toronto, told CBC News in a recent interview.

Gallimore's company provides utensils to a food services supplier for the Vancouver Games. A Winnipeg-based firm, The Waste Reduction Store, was interested in providing cutlery for the Vancouver Games but did not participate in the bidding process.

Still, Kathleen Boylan, the head of the Winnipeg company, told CBC News that she was interested in what products would be used at the Games.

She said she happened to come across samples of the eating utensils from Gallimore's company and wondered if they would indeed break down in the soil.

Curious about cutlery

She noticed they bore an emblem from a European agency that provides certification for eco-friendly goods, an agency that was unfamiliar to her.

She contacted the agency, Din Certco from Berlin, and discovered the product had not been examined by them.

"Gallimore is not a provider who has a valid certificate of Din Certco for biodegradable or compostable products," Din Certco's general manager, Lukas Willhauck, wrote in an email.

Samples tested

With that, Boylan said she took samples of Gallimore's utensils and had them tested, at her expense, by an independent laboratory in the U.S.

She shared the results with CBC News.

Kathleen Boylan said she paid to test samples of these utensils to see what they were made of. (CBC)According to those results, the items tested were made of corn starch and polypropylene plastic. The plastic content exceeded some industry standards for composting.

When CBC News asked Gallimore about those findings last November, he said Boylan made a mistake.

"They tested the wrong product," Gallimore said at the time.

He added that he was not planning to send those items to Vancouver.

An industry source told CBC News that Gallimore lined up a different product for the Games shortly after he was confronted about Boylan's claims.

'We don't want to advertise something that is not correct.'—Utensil supplier Gabriel Gallimore

CBC News contacted Gallimore again, just prior to the start of the Olympics, and he confirmed he did make changes.

"It did improve me as a company," Gallimore said about being challenged over his products.

"It forced me to change the product line to be able to meet the requirements and the standards for the Olympics."

A Toronto company, Gallimore Health, provided biodegradable knives, forks and spoons to the Vancouver Games. (CBC)Gallimore said he found a new supplier called Minima Technology in Taiwan.

Officials from the Olympics say they are happy with what Gallimore sent them and were satisfied the utensils are 100 per cent compostable.

Gallimore said he wanted to confirm he made the changes because he did not want to leave people with a false impression.

"I cannot mislead people," he said. "Not only because of the Olympics, but because we don't want to advertise something that is not correct."

Boylan told CBC News she feels vindicated.

"Fantastic," she said. "I just wish he could pay me back for the tests."