A food fraud bombshell has just exploded in the Australian processed tomato industry.
The impact will be felt globally. No matter where you are in the world, if you purchase processed tomatoes, you should be afraid. Very afraid.
Journalists from the respected Australian public broadcaster the ABC commissioned authenticity testing to determine the geographic origin of processed tomato products. They found that many products which claimed to be made with Australian-grown tomatoes had chemical profiles that match Chinese-grown tomatoes.
Specifically, 221 products from 39 brands were tested, with “one in four” found to have a disconnect between the origin claims on pack and the origin determined by authenticity testing.
Not surprising. We have known there’s an oversupply of tomatoes in China’s Western provinces for a while. And there was a similiar issue with UK products in 2024.
What is surprising is that almost all the Australian brand owners of the suspicious products were willing to go on the record with written statements saying they had robust traceability information from their suppliers, and that this traceability information gives them “the utmost confidence” that their products were made with Australian-grown tomatoes.
[Note that Australia has super-strict laws about origin claims and every single food product sold in Australia must be labelled with its country of origin by law.]
What’s happening here? Why would brand owners go on the record saying they are sure there’s no problem with their products if there’s a credible question about their authenticity?
It’s an unusual response. In my experience, brand owners accused of authenticity issues are more likely to prevaricate or provide vague denials, rather than publish definitive, specific statements of confidence in their supply chain and their own verification processes.
This points to two unique circumstances in this investigation:
(1) The investigation began some months ago, and the results have only just been published. I can confirm this has been a long-running investigation because I assisted the journalists in the early stages of their research.
(2) The brand owners were given sufficient time to properly deep dive into their own supply chain verification systems and that of their suppliers. (Sadly this usually isn’t the case when allegations of food fraud are published).
The result: the brand owners could go back to the journalists with on-the-record statements that their supply chains are clean and that their suppliers’ traceability systems are robust enough to show the tomatoes are Australian-grown before the allegations were published.
But here’s the problem: the science disagrees.
So is the science wrong, or are the brand owners wrong?
I say neither.
I have faith in the brand owners who have had these allegations levelled against them. We are talking about large, prestigious Australian brands, with plenty of in-house technical expertise, knowledge of food fraud and years of experience. If they say the traceability records are robust, I believe them.
I also have faith in the scientists that designed and ran the authenticity tests, Source Certain. They stand behind their test results, which were obtained using trace element analysis (TEA) and/or stable isotope ratio analysis (SIRA). Their methods are robust, and this is not the first tomato origin project they have successfully completed.
So if I trust the brand owners, and the science, how can I explain the discrepancy?
What do I think has happened?
I think someone upstream in the processed tomato supply chain has done an extremely good job of creating credible traceability records, possibly accompanied by some sort of transshipping of processed tomatoes through Australian locations.
It’s a shocking allegation, but I think someone, or multiple people, have faked traceability records in a highly skilled and systematic way. In doing so they managed to successfully deceive the brand owners of these processed tomato products, and ultimately, consumers. And that is food fraud.
What happens next?
Will we ever find out exactly where or exactly how these records were so successfully faked? Probably not. Internal investigators will find out, but in these circumstances the results rarely end up being shared publicly.
What to do with this information?
If you have anything to do with the processed tomato industry, be scared, be very scared.
Fraud is rife in your industry globally, and this investigation – and the brands’ responses – has revealed that it is very widespread and incredibly sophisticated.
Source:
We tested your groceries. This is what we found | Four Corners, ABC Australia (2026). Watch here
Need expert help with this?
Karen Constable is an Australian food fraud expert