Full list of tomato products linked to Chinese forced labour on sale in the UK

Products described as containing ‘Italian’ tomatoes could actually contain tomatoes grown in China using forced labour.

The BBC’s investigation found 17 tomato products including purée sold in UK and German supermarkets are likely to contain Chinese tomatoes.

Of those, six are sold in Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose – but all four supermarkets dispute the results of the testing.

China is the biggest producer of tomatoes globally, with the US in second place and Italy in third.

But most Chinese tomatoes come from the Xinjiang region, where their production is linked to forced labour by Uyghur and other largely Muslim minorities.

The UN has accused China of torture and abuse. China denies this and says workers’ rights are protected by law.

As part of the BBC’s investigation it spoke to 14 people who say they endured or witnessed forced labour in Xinjiang’s tomato fields over the past 16 years.

Those quotas were as high as 650kg of tomatoes each day, and those who failed to meet them would be beaten or hit with electric prods, reports suggest.

That echoes evidence uncovered in a 2022 UN report into torture and forced labour in Xinjiang detention centres.

It’s then thought most Xinjiang tomatoes are transported via train through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia before being shipping to Italy.

A lot of those tomatoes appear to have been bought up by Antonio Petti, part of a group of tomato processing firms in Italy, which bought 36million kg of tomato paste from Chinese companies between 2020 and 2023.

An undercover reporter posed as a businessman wanting to place a large order through Petti, and was told that the business uses Chinese tomatoes. Pictures of tomato barrels taken at the factory confirms this.

After testing 64 tomato purées – most of which claiming they contained Italian tomatoes – origin verification firm Source Certain found that 17 products contained Chinese tomatoes, 10 of which were made by Petti.

And of the 10 made by Petti, six were on sale in UK supermarkets at the time of testing between April and August 2024.

These are:

• Asda Organic Tomato Puree
• Asda Tomato Puree Double Concentrate
• Tesco The Grower’s Harvest
• Tesco Italian Tomato Puree
• Morrisons Tomato Puree
• Waitrose Essential Waitrose Tomato Puree

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

Many also disputed the testing methodology used.

Tesco suspended supply, while Waitrose and Morrisons said they had run their own tests, and that their results did not show the presence of Chinese tomatoes in the products.

A spokesperson for the UK Department for Business and Trade said: ‘We are clear that no company in the UK should have forced labour in its supply chain.

‘We keep our approach to how the UK can best tackle forced labour and environmental harms in supply chains under continual review and work internationally to enhance global labour standards.’

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