An investigation by the ABC has uncovered alleged provenance fraud across major tomato products brands, with more than 22 per cent of tested samples not matching the claimed country of origin. Industry says the claims expose wider concerns over Australia’s inadequate food labelling and testing requirements.
According to the latest episode of the ABC’s Four Corners program, Leggo’s, Coles, and Aldi tomato paste products have all been identified as allegedly misleading consumers – claiming products are Australian-sourced while forensic testing suggests otherwise. All three companies rejected the test results.
Origin verification service provider, Source Certain, conducted trace element analysis and stable isotope ratio analysis on more than 900 samples of 221 tomato products, from 39 brands. These techniques can identify trace amounts of specific elements in a plant-based product, absorbed from the local earth and water, that can indicate the region it was grown in. According to the ABC, 22 per cent of the tested samples failed, while 6 per cent were flagged as needing further testing to determine point of origin.
The episode also stated Source Certain says it has more than 98 per cent certainty that the failed tomatoes came from China. Food & Drink Business reached out to Source Certain looking for more quantitative details, but the company stated it is unable to provide further comment on the investigation.
National industry body for vegetable producers, AUSVEG, stated the claims expose wider concerns over Australia’s inadequate country of origin food labelling requirements and testing of imported vegetable products.
According to the organisation, major short-fallings in Australian labelling requirements provide consumers with no indication of the true origin of the imported product they are buying, and continue to seriously undermine the viability of Australian vegetable, potato and onion growers.
AUSVEG CEO, Michael Coote, said Australian vegetable growers are already dealing with serious and escalating challenges to their viability due to surging production costs and compliance burden, difficulties securing viable returns, declining vegetable consumption and a consumer cost-of-living crisis.
“It is bad enough that imported frozen and canned vegetable products are seriously undermining Australian vegetable growers, but what makes it even worse is that Australian consumers often have no real indication about what they are getting when they choose imported product,” said Coote.
“While current country of origin labelling might tell a consumer what country an imported frozen or canned product was packed or manufactured in, it often doesn’t specify where the produce is actually from.
“This isn’t just an economic issue for Australian vegetable growers, but a food quality, safety and security issue for Australian consumers. Australian vegetables are grown to some of the highest quality, safety, ethical and sustainability standards in the world, but the same cannot be said about imported frozen and canned vegetable products, particularly when we don’t know where it has actually been grown.
“Australia’s country of origin labelling requirements need to be strengthened to clearly tell consumers exactly where the frozen or canned vegetables they are buying are actually from, and imported vegetable products need to be subject to more stringent testing so consumers know exactly what they are eating,” he said.
The allegations follow similar international incidents over the past few years, with the BBC uncovering evidence in 2024 of Chinese tomatoes in products claiming to be Italian-sourced. There has been an extensive investigation into Italian producers dumping and/or subsidising tomato products in Australia, with the Anti-Dumping Commission finding evidence of this last year.
The Financial Times reported a significant reduction in Chinese tomato paste sales to Italy following the claims of misleading origin labelling by Italian producers, and forced labour use to produce the tomato products in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.
