Pulp fiction: Chinese tomato puree, made in Italy

The first chapter of the investigation uncovers how the British supermarket ASDA sold 200,000 cans of double concentrated tomato puree of Chinese origin labelled 'Made in Italy'.

A common practice for canners in Southern Italy is to import huge quantities of Chinese triple concentrate and then just add water and salt, pasteurise it and can it as "Italian" double concentrate of tomato.

Under the EU legislation, it would be perfectly legal to label Chinese tomato puree as Italian if it undergoes substantial processing, e.g. the adding of ingredients like olives etc. However, the simple adding of water and salt is not considered substantial processing (water is not to be considered an ingredient) and thus the above-mentioned practice is not legal within this framework.

This 'minimal processing' practice has resulted in a conviction in the first instance towards Antonino Russo, CEO of A.R. Industrie Alimentari (ARIA) in March 2012. However, Russo, the "tomato king" of Southern Italy, has appealed, believing he had all rights to label his products as 'Made in Italy' since he did process them.

Russo manages the biggest cannery of Europe (ARIA) which is the British market main supplier. It was in fact A.R., through Princes Ltd, the big UK food producer, to sell the lots containing Chinese puree to ASDA. Today Princes is not an intermediary anymore. It controls major stakes of PIA (Princes Industrie Alimentari), a company created together with Russo in order to manage the huge cannery plant of Santa Incoronata, in Apulia.