Tomorrow, Wednesday 19 April, it enters into force the obligation to introduce the indication of origin on the label for dairy products in Italy. It is provided for by the decree of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies of 9 December 2016 (published in the Official Gazette n. 15/2017), in implementation of regulation (EU) n.1169/2011, relating to the provision of information on food to consumers.
"The provision is a test case for giving our consumers additional information to make purchases with awareness", he comments the president of Confagricoltura Massimiliano Giansanti. Depending on the origin of the cow, sheep, goat, buffalo and other animal origin milk, and for UHT milk, its origin must be indicated on the label: Italy, EU countries, non-EU countries. For PDO and PGI cheeses and for fresh milk, the provisions of the legislation in force prior to the date of entry into force of the decree continue to apply, since they are already tracked.
“Only for products with milk milked, conditioned and processed in Italy, it will be possible to write on the label 'Origin of the milk: Italy'. If this wording does not appear, it means that at least one phase of the process has not been carried out in our country. Finally there is full transparency and it is possible – concludes the president of Confagricoltura Giansanti – to enhance the made in Italy, in accordance with the best traditions that make us recognized in the world as excellence”.
“With the obligatory origin labeling for long-life milk and its derivatives, a another important step in the direction of transparency of information to consumers in a situation in which, however, 1/3 of Italian spending remains anonymous”, commented the president of Coldiretti Roberto Moncalvo instead.
"Italy has become the world's largest importer of milk", denounced Moncalvo in underlining that "until now 24 million liters of milk equivalent pass through the Italian borders every day between tanks, semi-finished products, cheeses, curds and casein powders , to be bagged or industrially transformed and magically become Italian mozzarella, cheese or milk until now, unbeknownst to consumers. The absence of a clear indication of the origin of the long-life milk, of the cheeses or of the yoghurt has not made it possible to know a decisive element of choice for the qualitative characteristics, but it also prevents consumers from supporting the national production realities and with them the work and economy of true Made in Italy. In a difficult moment for the economy, we must bring the added value of transparency to the market with the obligation to indicate the origin of foods on the label."
