For Canada’s spies, the most harrowing challenge apparently begins at lunchtime.

The catered food at CSIS headquarters is so off-putting that one employee threatened to “raise the issue with Amnesty International,” emails obtained by the Star show.

A dozen pages of complaints on the quality of the food served at CSIS headquarters over a five-year period offer a rare look inside the workings of Canada’s spy agency. The documents describe a string of mistakes that employees say tarnished the agency’s reputation and left foreign dignitaries unimpressed with CSIS’s hospitality.

At the time, the catering services were prone to blunders, especially when it came to serving religious meals. In one instance, a foreign delegation visiting CSIS headquarters was served ham sandwiches, despite having inscribed the words “NO PORK” in bold letters on the order form.

Such incidents were “not isolated,” one employee wrote in an email. According to the documents, CSIS is unable to provide kosher food, and when halal dishes are served, they are often of poor quality.

In an instance that was later described as embarrassing by agency personnel, a reception hosted by CSIS for a group of foreign dignitaries was marred by the “extremely unappetizing” halal food. The meals, consisting mostly of sandwiches with no condiments, were left untouched, one employee said.

“While the refreshments offered were acceptable, aspects of the lunch fare were below what I would consider to be acceptable standards,” the complaint read. “I could not even identify one of the meats by sight. (. . . ) It may seem like a small point but it reflects poorly on us to provide this type of hospitality.”

The employee ended up distributing bags of chips as snacks.

And at CSIS headquarters, danger sometimes lurks in the unlikeliest of places. In 2010, an employee discovered a pebble in the cafeteria soup. The incident sparked an internal investigation by the cafeteria manager, who later found that the stone had apparently come from a bag of lentils.

A small majority of CSIS’s personnel, however, seem to be pleased with the food served at the main cafeteria, the documents show.

One internal survey conducted last year found that 51 per cent of the agency’s employees were satisfied with the quality of the meals. But they singled out several dishes for their poor taste, including “watery and almost non-tasting soups” as well as frozen bagels.

Steep prices are also forcing more and more staff to bring their own lunches to work — an issue that has drawn the ire of more than a few employees.

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“You keep annoying your captive customers and eventually annoyance will trump conveneince (sic),” one annoyed client wrote, noting that prices had increased by “more than 10 per cent on some items.”

CSIS did not return a request for comment.