Iconic Australian italian food brand Leggo’s has been accused by the ABC of mislabelling Chinese produced tomato paste as being Australian or Italian made.
Worse, the tests indicate the products were produced in Xinjiang, where – if the allegations are true – it’s highly possible forced labour was used to manufacture the products.
The company’s response? They reject the test results.
Leggo’s owner Simplot declined an interview but, in a statement, said it rejected the test results and said it had a trusted supplier and did regular due diligence.
Supermarket chains Aldi and Coles were also called out in the report and they too rejected the claims.
Rejecting the evidence is a high risk move as a comms strategy. You need to be 100% certain you have your facts right or the brand damage is going to be far worse.
Time will tell if Leggo’s, Aldi, and Coles’ strategy works out, but one imagines there’s a lot of paper work being checked by their suppliers right now.