Who Grew Your Tomatoes?
Testing for Four Corners failed a fifth of supermarket tomato products on origin. The companies deny it. Here's the version you can check yourself.
The biggest number in the Four Corners food fraud investigation was about tomatoes. The program had 221 supermarket tomato products tested, more than nine hundred samples of paste and passata and tinned tomatoes, and the lab reported that 22 per cent failed the check on where the tomatoes were actually grown. Products labelled Australian grown that the testing traced overseas.
The companies involved reject the findings flat out and say their own records trace every batch back to Australian paddocks. The lab's methods have been publicly questioned since. The ACCC is now making inquiries. I'm not the referee in that fight, and neither are you.
What struck me is that both sides of it can afford lawyers and laboratories, and the person pushing the trolley can't. If settling where a tomato grew takes stable isotope analysis, then reading the label harder was never going to save you.
The version you can check by looking
A tomato from a stall down the road doesn't need a lab. The person selling it grew it, usually within sight of where you're standing. Origin isn't a claim printed on their packaging. It's the paddock behind them, and you can ask about it with your own mouth.
Now the honest bit, because it's August. Fresh tomatoes barely exist in most of Australia right now, and no gate near you can promise one this week. That's not a flaw in buying direct. That's what food looks like when nobody is shipping it in from the other side of the world to fake a season.
Growers worth knowing before the season comes
These growers are live on SideStall now, selling what winter actually yields, and they're exactly who to be watching when tomato season arrives in spring. Listings change week to week, so check the stall page rather than taking my word for what's on the table today:
- Parawanga Produce near Whites Valley SA
- Hoskin Harvest near Lewiston SA
- From the garden near Glass House Mountains QLD
- Cath's Plants and Produce near Soldiers Hill VIC
- KQ Produce near Deanmill WA
And when the season does come, buy your sauce tomatoes by the box from a grower you've met. Passata made in your own kitchen from a paddock you've seen beats any origin claim a label can print.
New here? SideStall is a free app that maps the farm gates, roadside stalls and honesty boxes near you. Get it for iPhone or Android.
For the record: the testing figures come from the ABC's Four Corners program Duped: Food Exposed and the ABC's reporting of late July 2026. The companies' denials and the ACCC's inquiries were reported in early August 2026. No brand is named here because the findings are contested and under investigation.
Download the SideStall app, free on iPhone and Android, and see who's growing food near you.
Grow it yourself? List your stall on SideStall. It's free to start, there's no monthly fee to take payments, just a small service fee plus card processing when a buyer pays, and buyers are actively looking for exactly what you do. Set up your stall →
Cover photo by Parawanga Produce, Whites Valley SA.