INTERNATIONAL supermarket suppliers are required to match the environmental and ethical standards of Australian suppliers, supermarkets say.
Both Woolworths and Coles say their overseas suppliers - distributors and manufacturers, but not individual farmers - are audited by a third party.
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Woolworths Quality Assurance has been requiring third-party audits of overseas suppliers for two years, while Coles relaunched its five-year-old ethical sourcing policy in December.
Woolworths Group public relations manager Clare Buchanan said overseas suppliers were required to meet the same chemical residue, environmental, food safety, ethical and social standards as Australian suppliers.
"That's the intention," Ms Buchanan said.
But an Australian supermarket supplier who would not be named said there was no point auditing distributors and packhouses if individual farmers were not assessed.
"You've got to see how they grow ... anyone can pack out," the supplier said.
A second Australian supplier scoffed at the suggestion suppliers overseas were meeting the same standards as Australian suppliers.
"Do you believe in fairies?" the supplier asked. "China tells you their fruit is the cleanest thing ... (but) you see what they did with the milk powder."
Last week the Chinese Government admitted 100 tonnes of tainted milk powder left over from the 2008 melamine outrage was illegally resold and has not been recovered.
The Weekly Times recently revealed Woolworths' frozen vegetable section was almost exclusively from China. Many of its processed fruit and vegetables were from Peru, South Africa and Thailand.
Coles imported from the same countries although its "You'll Love Coles" frozen vegetable line was exclusively Australian.
Fruit Growers Victoria general manager John Wilson said he had seen practices overseas which "would not be condoned" in Australia, both in factories and on farms.
Another source in fresh produce asked while suppliers may be third-party accredited, "who accredits the third party?".
Coles spokesman Jim Cooper said the company had severed ties with overseas suppliers who did not meet ethical sourcing or food safety requirements.
