‘Italian’ tomato pastes, sold in many UK supermarkets, also appear to contain tomatoes grown and harvested in Chinaand indeed with forced labor, as revealed by the BBC in its investigation.

According to the British network, tomato products with “Italian” in their name, such as Tesco’s “Italian Tomato Purée”, are not -only- Italian.

A total of 17 products, most of which are Italian brands and sold in UK and German retailers, are believed to contain Chinese tomatoes.

Most Chinese tomatoes come from the Xinjiang region and their production is linked to the forced labor of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

The UN accuses China of torturing and ill-treating these minorities.

China, on the other hand, denies forcing people to work in the tomato industry and says workers’ rights are protected by law.

In fact, he replies that the UN report is based on “misinformation and lies”.

China is a major producer of tomatoes

China grows about a third of the world’s tomato production. The northwestern region of Xinjiang has the perfect climate for growing the world’s favorite vegetable.

It is also the area where China began a program of mass arrests in 2017. Human rights groups say more than a million Uyghurs are held in hundreds of facilities, which China has dubbed “re-education camps.”

Allegations of electrocution and torture of workers

The BBC spoke to 14 people who say they suffered or witnessed forced labor in Xinjiang’s tomato fields over the past 16 years.

“We were told that the tomatoes would be exported abroad,” Ahmed said, adding that if the workers did not produce up to 650 kilograms a day, they were given electric shocks.

Mamutjan, a Uyghur teacher who was jailed in 2015 for an irregularity in his travel documents, says he was beaten for failing to meet their high-profile production fraud.

“In a dark prison cell, there were chains hanging from the ceiling. They hung me there and said ‘Why can’t you finish the job?’ They hit me very hard. I still have scars,” the man described.

These accounts are difficult to verify, but they echo evidence from a 2022 UN report, which cited torture and forced labor in detention centers in Xinjiang.

From China to Europe

Gathering data from around the world, the BBC found that most tomatoes from Xinjiang are transported to Europe by train via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and from there end up in Italy.

Antonio Petti, member of a group of large tomato processing companies in Italy received more than 36 million kilos of tomato paste by Xinjiang Guannong Company and its subsidiaries between 2020 and 2023, the data showed.

The Petti Group produces tomato products under its own brand, but also supplies others to supermarkets across Europe, which sell them as their own branded products.

The BBC investigation looked at 64 different tomato pastes sold in the UK, Germany and the US comparing them in a laboratory with samples from China and Italy.

Lab results showed that many of these products did indeed contain Italian tomatoes – including all those sold in the US. But seventeen were found to contain Chinese tomatoes, 10 of which are manufactured by Petti – the Italian company.

Of these 10 manufactured by Petti, and sold in UK and German supermarkets, at least until August 2024.

In response to the BBC investigation, all the supermarkets said they took the allegations very seriously and carried out internal investigations which found no evidence of Chinese tomatoes.

However, one major retailer has admitted to using Chinese tomatoes. Lidl said they had a version of Baresa Tomatenmark tomato paste, made by Italian supplier Giaguaro, which was sold in Germany last year “for a short time” due to supply issues and that they are investigating it.

The Giaguaro company stated that all its suppliers respect the rights of workers and that at present they do not use Chinese tomatoes in Lidl products.

Speaking to the BBC, Dario Dongo, a journalist and lawyer, says the findings reveal a wider problem. The real cost of food. “When we see a low price we have to ask ourselves. What is behind it? What is the actual cost of this product? Who pays for it?”, he says.