Summary

'La Tosca' Tomato Paste label for labelling tins of food produced by La Tosca Food Processing Company in the 1950s.

La Tosca was founded by Nello and Bruna Borghesi in 1947 at 12 Bennett Lane, Melbourne. They had migrated to Melbourne from Italy in 1929. They produced tomato concentrate, tuna, asparagus, peppers and a bolognaise sauce under the label of 'Sugodoro' ('golden sauce'). The tomato paste was the most popular product and was predominantly sold to Italian delis and restaurants to make the base of sauces. The same label style was used from 1947-52.The vegetables were supplied by Victoria Market and tomatoes from Werribee market gardens.

In 1952 the production of the canned vegetable products stopped and only the tomato sauce line of Sugodoro continued. This was due to the competition of large companies such as Heinz and Campbells, as the family could never hope to meet the mass production abilities of these large corporations. In 1957/58 the family moved into handmade fresh pasta production, and grew into frozen pasta products in the 1960s. In 1972 La Tosca relocated to larger premises in Victoria Street Brunswick, managed by son Lio Borghesi (until his retirement) and his children.

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