The brand is sold in Swedish stores: “Takes the allegations very seriously”
Tomato puree, which according to the marketing is made from real Italian tomatoes, has in fact been made from Chinese tomatoes grown by convict laborers.
It reveals BBCwho inspected the production of tomato puree and can reveal that several brands cheat with the labeling of the country of origin.
One of the brands is Baresa, whose tomato puree is sold in Swedish Lidl stores.
A total of 17 products sold in German and UK stores likely contained tomatoes grown in China, shows BBC:’s test. One of the products is a tomato puree from the brand Baresa, which is part of Lidl’s Swedish range together with other tomato-based products from the brand
Of the products that fell in the review, ten were manufactured by the Italian company Petti. Among other things, the company is behind the production of Baresa’s puree.
The BBC tested a total of 64 tomato purées available in stores between April and August 2024. Some of the discontinued products have had “Italy” in the product name, others have mentioned Italy in the product description – the labeling can appear misleading.
The origin of tomatoes has been traced by creating something that can be compared to a “fingerprint”. The imprint is unique to each country of origin and is based on trace elements that the tomatoes absorb from local water and rocks. In this way, an imprint unique to Italy was produced, and an imprint unique to China. These could then be compared with the different tomato purées, writes the BBC.
Refuting the allegations
In addition to Lidl, British food stores such as Tesco, Asda and Morrisons are singled out in the review. The chains have sold tomato puree of their own brands, where the tomatoes have been found to come from plantations in China where penal labor occurs. All the accused food chains dispute the BBC’s test results.
“We take the allegations described by the BBC very seriously. Violations of human rights, such as forced labour, are not acceptable for Lidl,” writes the company’s press manager in Sweden, Nahir Aslan, in a message to TV4 Nyheterna.
“Through a series of follow-ups and analyses, Lidl has been able to demonstrate that there is no reason to believe that the information from our suppliers has been incorrect, or that the batches tested by the BBC contain tomato puree from China,” he adds, emphasizing that the company received guarantees from Petti that the goods do not have China as their country of origin.
Lidl is also said to have hired “accredited institutes for independent analyses”.
Cultivated by penal workers
Most of the Chinese tomatoes are grown in the Xianjing region and can be linked to penal labor carried out by Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. In a 2022 report, the UN accused the Chinese regime of torturing and abusing the groups, which China considers a security risk. The country denies that penal labor occurs in the tomato industry and believes that the UN report is based on misinformation and lies.
Human rights groups claim that more than a million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in the hundreds of facilities that China calls “re-education camps”.
Xinjiang tomatoes are transported into Europe by train – through Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to Georgia, from where they are shipped on to Italy.