I love to cook spaghetti. My sauce is filled with ground beef, meatballs, a ton of chopped onions and peppers, and a slew of seasonings. I also put in lots of different tomatoes: diced, crushed, stewed, sauce and paste. I’ve never used San Marzano tomatoes, however.
Grown in the volcanic soil of Italy’s Sarno Valley near Mount Vesuvius, San Marzano tomatoes are a premium variety known for their sweet, low-acidic, rich flavor. They have a thick, firm flesh, fewer seeds, and a lower water content, making them ideal for a rich, thick sauce. They also cost about twice as much as regular tomatoes.
San Marzano tomatoes are regulated by the European Union under “Denominazione d’Origine Protetta,” or a “Protected Designation of Origin.” This certification, which has been regulated by the Il Consorzio di Tutela del Pomodoro consortium in Italy since 1996, guarantees the tomatoes are grown in the specific Agro Sarnese-Nocerino region, hand-picked, and processed to strict standards.
Official San Marzano tomato cans contain the official DOP seal and a specific registration number from the Italian government. The label says “Pomodoro San Marzano dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP.” Similar to “Made in the USA” vs. “Assembled in the USA,” tomatoes labeled “San Marzano Style” or “Italian Style” are typically grown outside of the DOP region and do not meet the strict Italian authenticity requirements.
While I may not be as particular, other cooks apparently are more discerning when it comes to tomatoes.
Mike Andrich and Natalie Gianne filed a proposed class action lawsuit against New Jersey-based Cento Fine Foods Inc. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Cento is committing “tomato fraud” because its San Marzano Certified Peeled Tomatoes and San Marzano Organic Certified Peeled Tomatoes are not authentic.
Cento claims to be the only U.S. company with a production facility in the Sarno Valley region. It advertises that its tomatoes are grown in the Sarnese Nocerino area of Italy and that customers can even trace the exact field where the tomatoes in their product were grown by scanning the lot code on their can.
Cento declares its tomatoes are certified by an independent, EU-approved third-party agency called Agri-Cert. “From seed to shelf, our Cento Certified San Marzano Tomatoes are monitored and held to the highest of standards,” their website states. Agri-Cert, however, is a different organization from the EU-regulated consortium.
“In the way Champagne can only be produced in the Champagne region of France, real San Marzanos can only be grown, processed, and canned in a specific region of Italy,” court documents read.
The plaintiffs contend Cento marketing its tomatoes as San Marzano is “false, misleading and unfair,” as they are not regulated under the legitimate Italian consortium. They also claim the tomatoes lack the taste and consistency of true San Marzano tomatoes.
Andrich and Gianne are seeking an injunction to stop Cento from labeling their tomatoes as ‘certified San Marzano.’ They are also asking for Cento to pay $25 million to class action members and $10,000 to each of them as an “incentive award.”
This isn’t Cento’s first legal rodeo. In 2010, Italian police raided the company’s operations and uncovered 144,000 cans of tomatoes falsely labeled as San Marzano. In 2019, Giuseppe Napoletano, Cento’s manager, was found guilty of forging tomato farmers’ signatures and committing fraud to obtain false certifications for Cento’s products.
I’m guessing he was canned.
Reg Wydeven is a partner with the Appleton-based law firm of McCarty Law LLP. He can be reached at pcbusiness@postcrescent.com.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Proposed lawsuit alleges U.S. company is committing ‘tomato fraud’
Reporting by Reg Wydeven, For Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
