In December 2024, allegations of forced labour in the tomato puree supply chains of major British retailers caused shockwaves in Europe.
On the surface, the allegations appeared massively shocking. Firstly, the purees were portrayed as the products of the torture and abuse of Chinese religious minorities. Secondly, the news coverage implied large-scale fraud with respect to the origin of the purees, many of which were marketed with the word ‘Italian’ on the pack.
It seemed that British and German supermarkets were selling ‘Italian’ tomato purees that contained Chinese tomato puree supplied by companies that relied on forced labour.
Shocking.
But when I sat down to share the news with you in Issue 168, I found the legal situation was so murky that I actually couldn’t pin a definite ‘food fraud’ label on any of it.
The BBC, reporting on the issue, used very careful language when referring to the allegations, saying “[some products] are likely to contain Chinese tomatoes” and asserting that “most Chinese tomatoes come from the Xinjiang region, where their production is linked to forced labour by Uyghur and other largely Muslim minorities.”
Most of the details that would have helped to reveal whether this was a case of food fraud were not shared publicly or were not known to the BBC at the time. For example, we weren’t told how much Chinese puree was in any of the products – were they 100% Chinese or only 50%, for example?
We could not decipher the degree of fraud (or not) related to the ‘Italian’ claims, since the BBC did not share the exact claims on the packs of products that were found to contain some Chinese tomatoes.
And finally, while the BBC published interviews with workers who had picked tomatoes under forced labour conditions in China, the information it published was not direct evidence of forced labour in the supply chain of any of the puree products mentioned in the story.
Aside: The most compelling part of the 2024 story, for me, was that one of the Italian manufacturers that supplied some British supermarkets, the company that made ten of the seventeen samples which contained Chinese tomatoes, had previously been accused of fraud by Italian authorities for falsely claiming its products contained ‘100% Italian tomato’.
That’s right, the Italian company supplying ‘Italian’ tomato puree that allegedly contained Chinese tomatoes had been accused of fraud by Italian food authorities three years prior.
Background checks, anyone? A simple Google search of the company name followed by the word tomato revealed instant red flags: two of the top three search results were stories about the company’s 2021 brush with Italian food fraud investigators.
After the BBC report, all seemed quiet on the tomato paste front.
Not so.
The tomato paste market underwent a huge upheaval following the BBC investigation. Suddenly, everyone was paying attention to the origin of their tomato paste. No one wanted tomato paste from China and the Italian paste suppliers who had been importing it for use in their products stopped buying it.
In the months that followed, Italian processors reduced imports of tomato concentrate from China by 76%, according to the CEO of Mutti, a leading Italian maker of tomato purée and passata, leaving China with a huge stockpile of 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes of tomato paste, equivalent to around 6 months of exports.
Tomato News reports that while Chinese tomato exports to Western Europe and Italy have fallen dramatically, the surplus is being taken up by countries in Eastern Europe, Central America, and the Far East. Production in China has also fallen dramatically, with less than half the volume of tomatoes expected this year compared to 2024.
So, with China no longer supplying major markets in Western Europe, where will those markets get their tomato paste – that all-important ingredient for pizzas, pastas, ready meals and soups?
Can Italian tomato growers step up production to meet demand? Or will the supply-demand gap be so large that fraud becomes almost inevitable?
Food authenticity expert Professor Chris Elliott believes the current situation is ripe for fraud, suggesting the following scenarios are possible:
- The large stockpile of tomato paste in China could be transhipped or reprocessed in third countries to conceal its Chinese origins, making it palatable for Western European markets.
- Other false claims of origin could be made about tomatoes from other major growing areas such as Spain, Portugal, Chile and Iran.
- Lower-quality paste may be blended into higher-value pastes (noting this is not fraud unless accompanied by deceptive claims about quality or origin).
- Undeclared fillers and diluents, such as starches or sugars, could be used to extend the volume of scarce non-Chinese tomato paste.
- Undeclared and unauthorised colourants could be added to enhance the appearance of low-quality, diluted or age-degraded pastes.
With tomato paste having a long shelf life, these fraud risks will remain for as long as surplus stock remains in China and while European market demand is unsatisfied. And that could be for years to come.
Key takeaway
Read more:
🍏 Tomato Puree Fraud by Big Name Retailers? | Issue 168 🍏
This article was originally published at The Rotten Apple – weekly newsletter for food professionals.