The link for the following article on the ABC Rural website turned up on my facebook page today and I thought it worth sharing.  I personally recommend buying and eating local and seasonal produce and when things like this happen it makes conscious choice a little bit harder.  It is nice to know that occasionally the big corporates are taken to task, and may act as a deterrent to future practices of deception.

Check out your local farmers markets and develop relationships with the growers, I find this is a good way to ensure you are getting the best quality, locally produced and seasonal produce - at a good price, that you can buy.

Enjoy the read

Yours in health and seasons, Angela

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Wednesday, 11/05/2011

Two supermarkets in Sydney have been caught selling imported fruit as Australian.

Woolworths will pay a fine of $1,540 for advertising American lemons as Australian at its Newington store and Coles at St Marys will pay an $880 penalty for not disclosing its grapefruit was from Israel.

The supermarkets have been put on the NSW Food Authority’s Name and Shame Register.

Peter Darley, on the Horticulture Committee of the NSW Farmers Association says the large food barns are the worst culprits at not displaying where the fresh fruit and vegetables come from.

“They’re the ones that are certainly not complying and that’s disappointing,” he said.

“In one respect it’s interesting to see that Woolworths and Coles have been caught in this, but I think there’s a lot of others out there that will be caught in the investigations as the Food Authority steps up their investigations and inspections.”

Woolworths says it was “an isolated case of human error”, where individual lemons from the USA were correctly labelled, but the shelf said the lemons were Australian. The company says 97 per cent of its frest produce is locally grown. Coles has yet to respond to calls from the ABC.