Trailers full of tomatoes just east of Dixon set to be shipped to area tomato-processing facilities.

DIXON, CA (MPG) – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson recently introduced a bill that would strengthen efforts to keep low-quality foreign-grown tomatoes from entering the U.S. market illegally.

Thompson, who serves the state’s 4th District, which includes parts of Solano and Yolo counties, was one of several congressmen to introduce the Rooting Out Mislabeled Agriculture Act, or ROMA, last month.

The bill would build on existing technology with the creation of a U.S. Department of Agriculture database of isotopic signatures for processing tomatoes. 

Isotopic testing analyzes naturally occurring elements in food to create a geographic “fingerprint” to help identify where a product was grown, according to the bill, introduced on Sept. 8.

"My district grows the best processing tomatoes in the world, and American consumers deserve to know that when a tomato product is labeled as American, it is actually made from tomatoes grown here in the United States,” Thompson said. “Our farmers and processors should not be undercut by foreign products that are blended, mislabeled or used to evade our trade and forced-labor laws.” 

The legislation would give the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service the tools to develop the scientific fingerprint needed to verify where tomatoes are grown and bolster consumer confidence, Thompson said. 

Thousands of acres of tomatoes are grown around the Dixon area, and the city is home to Campbell Soup’s tomato-processing plant on Pedrick Road, which handles hundreds of tons of locally grown tomatoes annually. 

The legislation is directed in part at China, which is a major producer of processing tomatoes. Some Chinese regions where tomatoes are grown are “linked to serious forced-labor concerns,” according to a press release from Rep. David Valadao (CA-22), another sponsor of the bill. 

“Chinese tomato products … face longstanding concerns over quality and food safety, including reports of rotting tomatoes and undeclared fillers that would not meet the standards required of U.S. products,” Valadao said.

There has been recent concern in Europe that Chinese tomato paste can be rerouted through supply chains and deceptively marketed as locally grown. 

“This practice makes it increasingly difficult for consumers to know where their tomato products actually come from – and whether the quality and safety of those products match what is advertised,” Valadao said.

Research has shown that isotopic testing can distinguish tomatoes from different regions, including China and Italy, even after the tomatoes have been processed into paste and other products. 

The bill would give California processing-tomato growers a powerful new tool to fight fraud in the marketplace, said Mike Montna, president and CEO of the California Tomato Growers Association in Sacramento. 

“By creating a scientific, isotopic fingerprint for our crop, this bill helps ensure that products labeled as U.S.-grown tomatoes actually are – protecting our growers, processors and consumers alike,” Montna said. “This will ensure that imported tomatoes entering our market are what they claim to be.”