Canned Tomatoes

By Elizabeth Zanoni

Tomatoes are native to the Americas. But by the time of mass Italian emigration to Argentina, tomatoes were an integral part of the Italian diet, appearing in a variety of sauces, stews, and condiments. With the start of mass Italian migration to Argentina in the final third of the nineteenth century, this American food was brought to the Americas in very new ways.

Argentina was an especially profitable market for canned tomato products because of its large Italian population and because the country did not have a large industrial food production sector before World War I. Italians’ love for tomatoes influenced Argentine food culture (not only in other foods that Italians brought such as pasta sauces and pizzas but also in typically Argentine vegetable and meat stews).

European colonizers and “explorers” from the Americas introduced tomatoes to Italy and other parts of Europe during the Columbian Exchange, the great transfer of foods, plants, animals, and microbes back and forth across the Atlantic during the early modern period. Over time, Italians, especially southern Italians, made tomatoes an essential part of their everyday food cultures. Tomatoes were eaten raw and appeared as key ingredients in regional-based pasta sauces, stews, and condiments. They also topped the pizzas that became a common street food for urban folk in Naples by the nineteenth century. By the late 1900s, Italy had several large-scale tomatoes processing plants that produced canned tomato products.

In Argentina, migrant demand for whole and peeled canned tomatoes, as well as canned sauces, pastes, purees, and extracts sustained international trade with Italy. Furthermore, Spanish expansion in the Mediterranean and Latin America during the early modern period meant that the tomato held a key position in the food cultures of not only Italians who came to Argentina but also Argentines, Spaniards, and other immigrants.

Advertisement for Italian Cirio-brand tomato extract, 1925.
Source: Advertisement for Italian Cirio-brand tomato extract, La Patria degli Italiani (Buenos Aires), September 3, 1925, 3.

One of the largest Italian tomatoes producers, canners, and exporters to Argentina was the Cirio Company, founded by Francesco Cirio from Asti in the Piedmont region of Italy. Advertisements for Cirio tomato products appeared regularly in Italian-language newspapers. These advertisements often featured consumers purchasing and eating Cirio-brand tomatoes to maintain Italian identities abroad and to support Italy economically and industrially. Today, Argentines from many backgrounds eat tomatoes in what have become classic Argentine dishes such as pizza and pasta, showing the lasting legacy of Italian immigration and Italian food culture.

Advertisement for Italian Cirio-brand tomato extract, 1925.
Source: Advertisement for Italian Cirio-brand tomato extract, La Patria degli Italiani (Buenos Aires), November 18, 1925, 7.

Canned Tomatoes

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