"What's the real cost of your fresh salad?", 15 April 2015

The claims are made by politicians and workers in Spain who say migrants employed to pick salad for companies whose produce ends up on the shelves of British supermarkets are routinely mistreated, forced to work weeks on end, cheated out of wages and exposed to pesticides...Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Asda all say they source our food responsibly and they have all signed up to the Global Ethical Trading Initiative, designed to protect workers' rights. M&S promotes its Field to Fork policy assuring customers its suppliers adhere to high standards. Waitrose claim their produce is "responsibly sourced"...Agroherni [supplier to these supermarkets] uses an employment agency called Integra Empleo to provide casual workers to pick the produce in its fields...Both Agroherni and the employment agency Integra Empleo deny all the allegations and both companies say they have launched investigations into the claims...

Sainsbury's told us: "We expect our suppliers to adhere to the highest quality and welfare standards, regardless of where they operate in the world. We are taking these allegations very seriously and will be conducting our own investigation."  Waitrose told us: "Worker welfare is very important to us - our supplier is investigating these allegations and will ensure that our high standards are being met."...The British Retail Consortium which represents all the supermarkets told us: "Ensuring workers are treated fairly in our supply chains is a key concern for retailers and we know all supermarkets will examine these allegations closely to take both immediate action where appropriate and refine their auditing procedures...