Do you know where the tomatoes come from that are processed and are now in your bottle of ketchup or the original Italian spaghetti sauce?

If your answer is yes, you do not need to read any further.

If you are NOT sure, the content of this article may surprise you.

Imagine you are buying a bottle of ketchup, spaghetti sauce or a can of tomato puree in a shop of a large national or international European supermarket chain. On the label (own brand from supermarket up to a prime label) the place of manufacture is stated as Italy, Germany, France, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands or another country within the EU. Then you logically expect that the vegetables used also come from this country. Far from it!!

The primary product (tomatoes) comes with a high probability from ........ CHINA! The same counts for champignons and other mushrooms, slices of mandarins and other fruit like cherries and many other products in glass or can, as well as some frozen fishes and lobsters and it's products.

In principle there is nothing wrong with if those products origin in Asia, but......

I watched this movie (made by the German TV station ARD today) and it was certainly an eye opener for me. Unfortunately it is in German language available only but I assure you it is absolutely worth to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL_78p6kljg

How does the huge but also cheap food production machinery work in the Asia and in paricular in China?

China Canned - Cheap Far East Food

In the movie, journalist Christian Jentzsch searches for traces and looks behind the scenes of the industry. How does the very cheap food production machinery work in China? Environmentalists there complain about poisoned water and agricultural land and farmers find it difficult to control this pollution. EU authorities recently carried out controls in the Chinese food industry. The results are unsatisfactory - the inspectors found numerous shortcomings. In China, improvement was praised. However, consumers can only rely on something as it will be really improved.

Consumers love regional food. But large quantities of the food are imported - and China is playing an increasingly important role in this. China is still not only a supplier of cheap clothing, sports shoes and smartphones, but also for European food discounters. Vegetables and fruits in glasses and frozen mixes, canned mushrooms, pig intestines for the German, French, UK, Spanish and Italian sausages: They come more and more from the Far East. Pig intestines are exported from Europe to China just for the cleaning process and afterwards repacked and imported in Europe again.

The Chinese have long been market leaders in products such as tomato paste and apple juice concentrate. But there is hardly a bottle or can that shows the origin. On the contrary: Chinese tomatoes often end up in the saucepans as "Made in Italy" tomato paste.

After food scandals and massive environmental problems, which caused big troubles in China itself, skepticism is also applicable in our countries. Organisations such as 'Foodwatch' and consumer centers complain about a lack of transparency and call for the origin of processed food to be made binding. They also see room for improvement in the controls.

So far, only animal meat and products of it have to be shown on the EU's external border, BUT processed plant foods (vegetables and fruit) have not.

With other words: THERE IS NO QUALITY CONTROL AT ALL FOR THOSE PRODUCTS. European producers and sellers relay on local control mechanism in the country of origin only.....

Please watch the movie and share your thoughts about this issue....