Popular Italian food brand accused of 'tomato fraud' in new lawsuit company says is meritless
The lawsuit was filed in the northern district of California on Monday.
A proposed class action lawsuit filed in California on Monday alleges "tomato fraud" by the popular Italian food distributor Cento Fine Foods.
The lawsuit, filed by two California residents, claims the company is illegally and falsely branding its tomato products as containing San Marzano Certified tomatoes.
Cento has dismissed the claims and called the allegations meritless.
San Marzano tomatoes are a variety of plum tomato originating in Italy's Campania region and are renowned for their intense, sweet flavor. The lawsuit alleges the tomatoes in Cento's San Marzano tomato products are inauthentic and inferior to the "Ferrari or Prada" of canned tomatoes, quoting from a blog post on Martha Stewart's website describing the tomatoes.
"Defendant's marketing and labeling of Cento San Marzanos as 'Certified San Marzano' tomatoes is false, misleading, and unfair," the lawsuit states. "They lack the taste, consistency, and other physical characteristics associated by consumers with certified San Marzano Tomatoes."
San Marzano tomatoes are afforded protected status -- "DOP" or "Denominazione d'Origine Protetta" -- in the European Union, like other region-specific goods including Champagne and Parmesan cheese.
An independent consortium, Il Consorzio di Tutela del Pomodoro San Marzano DOP, regulates the sale of the tomatoes to ensure they are grown in the right region using the proper techniques.
The consortium's website details the categorization of the San Marzano tomato, which it describes as "grown exclusively in the Sarnese-Nocerino area," having an "elongated cylindrical shape" and "an intense red color with yellow shades."
True San Marzano tomatoes need to be certified by the consortium, according to the lawsuit, which alleges Cento products lack the necessary certification to be considered true San Marzano tomatoes.
Cento has said it voluntarily stopped seeking certification from consortium in the 2010s over labeling requirements, though the lawsuit alleges the removal was linked to an investigation into "counterfeit DOP labeling."
The lawsuit points to the Cento product labels, alleging the company has created "an erroneous impression that they contain DOP certified San Marzano Tomatoes of equivalent quality."
In a statement to ABC News, a lawyer for Cento Fine Foods said the lawsuit is "entirely without merit" and vowed to "defend this claim vigorously."
"We believe this claim is entirely without merit. We have previously successfully defended a comparable lawsuit in New York federal court and will defend this claim vigorously as well, including seeking prompt dismissal," the statement read.
The lawyer declined to comment further, citing the pending litigation.
The New York case referenced in the statement refers to a similar lawsuit against Cento that was dismissed by a federal judge in 2020. That lawsuit alleged Cento was selling unknowing customers an "inferior" product -- third-party-certified San Marzano tomatoes -- and that customers would not pay for Cento's products if they "[knew] the truth" about them.
The judge in that case wrote that a "reasonable consumer" was unlikely to seek out a specific "Consortium certified" San Marzano tomato over one that matched the same standards but was certified by a different body.
Cento has argued in the past that its San Marzano tomatoes are grown in the right region of Italy, use the proper methods, and get their certification from a different third party.
"At Cento Fine Foods, we take nothing more seriously than the quality and integrity of our products. We take pride in the fact that our labels accurately describe the products inside. Cento is a brand consumers can trust," the company said in a 2019 statement responding to the New York lawsuit.
This week's lawsuit was filed by two California shoppers who estimated they purchased more than a dozen cans of Cento tomatoes. The proposed class action suit requests that a judge award more than $25 million to allegedly deceived consumers.
"Plaintiffs would never have purchased Cento San Marzanos, especially at their premium price, if they had known that they were inauthentic, and indeed illegal in Italy, home of San Marzano tomatoes," the lawsuit states.
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