BBC alleges some mislabelling of tomato products

BBC World Service Evening News, on December 1, 2024, presented a report by BBC Eye Investigations, alleging that “Italian” tomato purees sold by a number of UK supermarkets appear to contain tomatoes grown and harvested in China with the use forced labour.
 
The analysis commissioned by the BBC World Service of U.K. supermarket own-brand Tomato Puree products labelled as “Made in Italy from Italian Tomatoes”, indicated that the majority of them, sold by UK and German retailers, are likely to contain Chinese tomatoes.
 
Most of the Chinese tomato crop is grown in the Xinjiang region, where this BBC report suggests that their production is linked to forced labour by Uyghur and other, largely Muslim minorities. 

The UN accuses the Chinese Authorities – who views these minorities as a security risk – of torture and abuse. China denies it forces people to work in the tomato industry and says workers’ rights are protected by law. It says the UN report is based on “disinformation and lies”.
 
BBC asked Source Certain, a world-renowned origin verification firm based in Australia, to investigate whether the origin claims on the purees’ labels were accurate. The lab results suggested many of these products did indeed contain Italian tomatoes. But 17 of them appeared to contain Chinese tomatoes,
 
While the US has introduced strict legislation to ban all Xinjiang exports, Europe and the UK take a softer approach, allowing companies to self-regulate, auditing their suppliers to ensure forced labor is not used in their supply chains.

The EU, has recently committed to table stronger laws, says Chloe Cranston, from the NGO Anti-Slavery International.
 
All the supermarkets whose products were tested by BBC Eye Investigations dispute these findings.

For more information: 
The BBC film  « The Secrets of Xinjiang’s Tomato Industry – BBC World Service Documentaries” is on free access here and the original  BBC article can be read  here .