All three companies identified in the recent Four Corners investigation published by ABC News have denied the allegations that their products are not, in fact, made in Australia or Italy, despite being advertised as such.
Forensic laboratory Source Certain tested 221 processed tomato products from 39 brands over several months and found that 22 per cent did not originate in the country claimed on product labels. All the “falsely marketed” products were actually made in China, the investigation found.
Among these allegedly misleading products were from Leggo’s, or Coles and Aldi supermarkets.
Inside FMCG approached the businesses and brands in question, all of whom denied the investigation’s findings. Coles – which received allegations over its own-brand Italian Tomato Paste – said it has held a trusted relationship with its supplier for more than 20 years.
“Coles has no evidence that Chinese tomatoes, including tomatoes from Xinjiang, were used in the Coles Italian Tomato Paste products identified by Four Corners,” the spokesperson added. “We strongly reject any suggestion that Coles knowingly misled customers, engaged in food fraud or profited from food fraud.
“We do not accept that the testing results presented by Four Corners establish that Coles Italian Tomato Paste contains tomatoes sourced from China or Xinjiang.”
The supermarket giant said it will commission independent testing into the products in question.
Aldi’s own-brand Remano paste was the subject of Four Corners’ ire in the investigation. Much like Coles, it rejected the allegations on all counts.
“Aldi partners with reputable suppliers, who we require to have full evidence of traceability of both raw materials and production of these two products, which are sourced from Italy and Australia,” the supermarket said. “Our suppliers have assured Aldi that the batch numbers provided contain tomatoes that are sourced from these locations.”
Leggo’s received perhaps the widest range of allegations; ABC News said the majority of its products tested were found to have misleading labels.
US-based owner Simplot told Inside FMCG that the claims have caused “significant concern”.
“We are confident our Australian Grown claims are accurate, and there is nothing in our records to indicate these products are anything other than Australian grown,” Simplot added.
“Our records do not align with the limited information we were provided by the ABC related to their study. We have also engaged with our supplier, who maintains sophisticated traceability capabilities and stands by its Australian-grown produce.”
Simplot challenged Source Certain for not sharing its testing approach, arguing that it cannot understand how such conclusions were reached.
“We work closely with our suppliers through quality assurance, sourcing verification and compliance programs to ensure our products meet our quality, sourcing and regulatory requirements,” it said.
