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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

THE CHEESE "FRAUD"-ITALIAN STYLE!


Italians have a reputation for evolving good foods, appreciated all over the world. Though the "mafia" related notoriety gives this nation a bad image, a minuscule population that indulges in such type of heinous activities cannot mar the good things for which this country is well know. There is another face to an average Italian which reflects his philosophy that life cannot always be a bed of roses and only bad things encountered in life can make people appreciate the good side of life. Here is an example of such an attitude towards adulterated buffalo mozzarella cheese being allowed to dominate the market.

"Italy's agriculture minister "said he had disbanded the consortium of producers which guarantees buffalo mozzarella quality after routine inspections had shown that even mozzarella produced by Luigi Chianese, the consortium's president, had been 'watered down' with cow's milk," The Times of London reports. The minister, Luca Zaia, said, "In November, checks in major supermarkets in Italy found that 25 percent of the cheese sold as buffalo mozzarella was fake because it contained 30 percent cow milk." It's not the first scandal involving buffalo mozzarella. In 2008, some was found to be contaminated with dioxin".


While using cow's milk in some proportion during preparation of the cheese may not be harmful to health, the dioxin tainted products really pose dangers requiring the food safety authorities to take preventive action. Dioxin is generated during open, uncontrolled burning of plastic wastes which pollute the environment and milk can easily pick up these pollutants from the atmosphere. Of course dioxin problem is a universal one and it is not Italy's alone. Unless more serious efforts are made to recover waste plastics for recycling, this problem is bound to remain as a reminder of human fallibility to plastics.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

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