British supermarkets are experiencing issues with tomato purée supply after becoming embroiled in a major forced labour scandal.
A number of big retailers were named in a BBC investigation that found alleged links between forced labour in China and tomato purée products sold in the UK.
A Panorama exposé earlier in the week claimed tomato concentrates sold by several big grocers, including Tesco, Asda and Waitrose, were found to contain traces of tomatoes produced in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, where production was linked to forced labour by Uyghur and other Muslim minorities.
Testing of 64 different tomato purées sold in the UK, Germany and the US was commissioned by the BBC World Service and conducted by Australian origin verification firm Source Certain.
Results claimed that 17 products – including own-label tomato purée supplied by Italian manufacturer Petti to UK supermarkets – “appeared to contain Chinese tomatoes”.
These included Tesco’s “Italian Tomato Purée”, Asda’s double concentrate tomato paste, which says it contains “puréed Italian grown tomatoes”, Waitrose’s “Essential Tomato Purée” and Morrisons’ own-label tomato purée.
All the retailers named in the investigation have hit back at the findings over the week, disputing the credibility of the BBC’s testing and claiming to have guidelines in place against using tomatoes from Xinjiang.
Testing is ‘not definitive’
Supermarkets said they were “confident” in their own traceability checks and claimed to have conducted robust testing – using both Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) and Trace Element Analysis (TEA) methods – as well as factory audits to confirm their own-label products did not contain any Chinese tomatoes.
A Waitrose spokesperson said: “We were appalled to hear these serious allegations and launched an immediate investigation, sending a team of food auditors to the site in Italy.
“We’ve now conducted isotope testing at a leading, independent lab – along with a detailed traceability audit on our purée – neither of which showed evidence of Chinese tomatoes.”
Asda said its own lab tests and site audits confirmed its products had 100% Italian origin tomatoes.
Morrisons said it had a “clear policy” against ingredients or finished products from Xinjiang and that it had taken the allegations “very seriously”.
“[We] immediately undertook our own audit of the supplier and commissioned our own testing using independent, accredited laboratories”, a spokesperson said. “The audit gave us full confidence that the tomato purée in the products was from an approved source in California, USA and the testing – using both SIRA and TEA methods – concluded that it was not of Chinese origin.”
A Tesco spokesperson said the grocer conducted its own thorough investigations following the claims, and added the BBC had acknowledged the testing method used for the programme was “not a definitive ‘proof of origin’ test”.
This was backed by Chris Elliott, professor of food safety and microbiology at Queen’s University Belfast, who said the technique used was insufficient to pin the samples’ origin to a specific region in China.
“You cannot say a product came from one part of the world solely on testing of samples in one methodology. It’s not strong and robust enough for that.”
Elliott added: “I’m not aware of all that the UK retailers who were implicated in the story did, I do know some of them got their own independent testing done and got completely different results.
“I’m not saying one test is good and one test is bad. But as an expert in this area, you have to look at all of the data in its totality to really interpret it properly”.
A FSA and Defra-funded paper from this July stated that there “is no unequivocal single technique to verify the claimed country of origin of food and feed”, and that “at the present time trace element analysis alone cannot be considered to be an indiscriminate tool to determine the origin of the sample when considering the worldwide source”.
Despite the findings, some of the products mentioned in the Panorama episode now appear to be unavailable. Assosia data showed that Tesco’s own-label tomato purée lines had been out of stock since 10 October. The supermarket confirmed it had suspended supply in light of the allegations.
Waitrose’s own-label tomato purée product mentioned in the investigation has also been unavailable since 14 August, which the retailer attributed to a change in packaging from tube to tin, with the product now available in the updated packaging.
Meanwhile, Morrisons’ own-brand tomato purée is not stocked online but was available in store, it said. Asda’s tomato concentrates mentioned in the investigation also remain available.
The Grocer understands that brands including Cirio and Mutti are being asked to ramp up supply to fill in some of the gaps in own-label availability in recent weeks.
None of the retailers have commented on whether they will cut ties with Petti group.
Forced labour and sourcing risks
In addition to testing evidence, the BBC investigation also traced shipments from Xinjiang, China’s northwestern region, which produces one third of the world’s tomatoes, all the way to Italy.
It then found evidence that manufacturer Antonio Petti – part of a group of major tomato processing companies in Italy, which supplies tomato goods (not just purée) to supermarkets across Europe to be sold under their own-brand labels – was a common recipient of those Chinese tomatoes.
An undercover encounter reportedly led to a Petti director confirming it used Chinese tomatoes in its products. There was also video evidence of a 2023 order still held in one of its factories.
Even though imports of Chinese tomatoes into Europe are not banned, all of the UK retailers involved in the report have strict guidelines against using them in their products – particularly those grown in the region of Xinjiang, which has historically been linked to labour exploitation of Muslim minorities.
Only three years ago, Tesco wrote to Parliament to confirm that it had told suppliers it would “not accept any use of ingredients from Xinjiang” and that “failure to comply with Tesco specifications would lead to delisting”.
The Italian own-label manufacturer Petti claimed it had not bought tomatoes from any companies linked to forced labour, and added: “In future we will not import tomato products from China and will enhance our monitoring of suppliers to ensure compliance with human and workers’ rights.”
Elliott argued that “if [the retailers] hadn’t been dealing with companies that actually sourced from China, they would not be in this position”.
“They have really some hard thinking to do about sourcing, because companies may guarantee that they’ve got different manufacturing lines and so forth, but either by accident or deliberately, they could be mixing different products together. Why would you possibly take that risk?”
Read more: Forced labour in food supply chains on the rise, charity data shows
Labour MP Sarah Champion accused the retailers of being “complicit in putting profits above human rights” earlier this week.
She described the UK’s product labelling rules as “weak and confusing”, and called for better on-pack information around ingredients’ country origins, and for stronger legislation to effectively ban imports of products linked to labour exploitation.
“To supermarkets, I say, all of you are complicit in putting profits above human rights and I hope the British public do the right thing and make their mark with their pocket, in their wallet,” she said.
Unlike in the US, where all Xinjiang exports are banned, “no law in the UK compels companies to conduct human rights due diligence on their supply chains and act when abuses are uncovered, or bans the import of goods made using forced labour”, the charity Anti-Slavery International notes.
The UK therefore “risks becoming a dumping ground for goods made using forced labour”, it said.
More UK companies in 2024 have found evidence of modern slavery in their operations or supply chains, according to the latest modern slavery benchmark from CCLA Investment Management, which highlighted that modern slavery was more prevalent than previously thought in UK companies’ supply chains.
“The UK government knows we need stronger laws to tackle modern slavery”, said Anti-Slavery International head of thematic advocacy programmes Chloe Cranston. “And it’s time for it to act. It’s never been clearer that the Modern Slavery Act isn’t fit for purpose, and I urge ministers to introduce robust new legislation as a matter of urgency.”
‘Detrimental to the sector’
There are now concerns around the “detrimental” impact of the scandal on consumer confidence not just in the retailers, but the whole tomato sector, said Dhiresh Hirani, UK MD for Italian brand Mutti.
Mutti – one of the few brands that passed the BBC’s sample tastes – advocates for taxations or full bans of Chinese tomato imports in Europe to “protect Italian farmers” and “level the playing fields” as the Asian-grown produce is “about 60% cheaper”, Hirani said.
He noted the connection between cheap Chinese goods and reported forced labour conditions: “If you’re selling a product for 75p, something’s got to give.”
Hirani also urged brands and private labels to improve packaging and labelling to “better communicate to the shoppers about the origin of the product”.
“People now are going to be asking – are those tomatoes Italian or are they Chinese?” he said. “When we talk about labels, it’s not just our category. Everyone needs to be better at doing it and communicating the origin of the product.”
Experts have also acknowledged concerns around the extent to which potentially fraudulent ingredients from Italy may have permeated the food supply chain, as tomato paste is also used in other products such as ketchup, pasta sauces and ready-made meals like spaghetti bolognese.
“If you think about tomato purées, how many products in the supermarket actually contain purées – and then if you go further, think of all the tomato-based products that we would eat in food service, in cafés and restaurants”, Elliott said. “That’s where we’ve got great difficulty in that level of traceability.
“The likelihood is that large amounts of that Chinese product does come into the UK. China produces it, it’s very cheap, and markets will dictate the prices that people pay for things”, he added.
However, Elliott noted that the multiple retailers had some of the strictest traceability standards in place “because of reputation and the significant commitments they’ve made around where they source from”.
Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute for International Trade & Exports, said the tomato purée scandal served as a “wake-up call for industry, for manufacturers, for processors and for those involved in international trade to ensure they’ve got track and trace, and visibility” in place.
“Consumers are going to increasingly demand that there is that visibility and that assurance through the supply chain,” he added. “The audit process through the supply chain, it’s not something to be afraid of, it is positive and needs to be implemented.”
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