Consumer Watchdog: Pure NZ mainly a myth

Many shoppers assume frozen veges are Kiwi-grown. Not so, except Talley's. Photo / File

Just one brand of frozen vegetables on supermarket shelves use 100 per cent New Zealand-grown vegetables.

The rest - including Wattie's and McCain - supplement local produce with vegetables from China, Vietnam, South America, and the United States. Not that you would know from looking at the packet - all products meet New Zealand's food safety regulations but none need country-of-origin labelling. This is despite studies indicating more than 75 per cent of people prefer New Zealand-made food.

It's not hard to monitor where food comes from. Dunedin company Oritain has developed ways to pinpoint exactly where a fruit or vegetable is grown by analysing the microscopic "fingerprint" left by soil and rain.

Director Helen Darling said it was the "forensic science" of food - and testing was inexpensive and straightforward: "Consumers want to know where their food comes from. There's a need for transparency."

The Herald on Sunday asked Wattie's and McCain for information about their frozen vegetables. Both use the label: "Packed in NZ from local and imported ingredients." We wanted to know which vegetables came from overseas and the percentage grown in New Zealand.

Wattie's said 90 per cent of its vegetables were locally grown but it sourced baby corn from Thailand and its cauliflower and broccoli could come from China, Ecuador, Guatemala or Spain.

McCain said its broccoli and cauliflower were sometimes imported from the United States, Chile, China and Vietnam, as was about 5 per cent of its peas. A company spokesman said he could not be more specific because the numbers were changeable.

Horticulture NZ chief executive Peter Silcock said companies knew exactly where ingredients came from and it was disappointing such information was not passed on to the consumer. Most consumers were prepared to pay more for a locally grown product.

But Talleys is often the cheapest of the three. At Countdown, 1kg of its peas, corn and carrots mix was $3.59 compared with imported-local mixes by McCain ($4.49) and Wattie's ($4.59).

Shoppers outside an Auckland supermarket were surprised to hear Talley's was the only brand that guaranteed its frozen vegetables were locally grown. "I didn't know that," said 70-year-old Jan McCallum. "I'd always assumed they would all be using New Zealand produce."

FRESH TREAT

"Food fraud" threatens to cheat Kiwis out of their money. Oritain director Helen Darling said fraudulent food had already flooded world markets and products making false country-of-origin claims were common. "The moment you put a label on something, people will want to counterfeit it. It's happening in every country. We would be naive to think it won't happen here."