Italian cheese is very popular abroad: in 2018 it scored a historical record of its exports with an increase of 8% in quantity compared to 2017 which was already a golden year for our producers who exported 412 million kilos of made in Italy cheese. But success also has its downsides. If cheese is liked, and it becomes a strong business, dishonest producers throw themselves into it by imitating our food and wine excellence. Latest news - but only in chronological order - comes from Spain where thanks to the intervention of the Central Fraud Repression Inspectorate of the Ministry of Agricultural Food Policies, an alert was activated on the Food Fraud Network platform, the European Network against food fraud, for the Spanish authorities to block for the protection of Italian producers but also of Iberian consumers an illegal trade in "authentic" buffalo mozzarella made instead of with buffalo milk with ordinary cow's milk".
“ Our control system is recognized as one of the best in the world and we have demonstrated it once again - commented Minister Gianmarco Centinaro - for this I thank the ICQRF inspectors who defend the good name of our productions every day with capillary checks also on the web, a great teamwork at the level of verifications and also institutional, which sees us at the forefront not only for the protection of consumers but also for honest producers".
The discovery of the fraud in Spain is the latest in an endless series. A few days ago, thanks to the monitoring of foreign markets carried out by the Consortium for the protection of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana dop, it was discovered that in Belgium dishonest producers packed it locally, selling it at 30 euros per kilo to a well-known chain of supermarkets in Brussels, "authentic ” Campania buffalo mozzarella. And another discovery, again in recent times, had taken place in Germany. Even in that case, the Consortium sent an immediate report to the Central Quality and Fraud Repression Inspectorate of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies, which in turn initiated the procedure envisaged by the EU with the direct responsibility of each Member State to define the hypotheses of offenses and the consequent legal actions.
Among the Italian cheeses the Mozzarella di Bufala Campana ranks first both in terms of exports, after Parmigiano, Grana padano and Gorgonzola, and in terms of production with a value of 600 million euro, insured by 1.500 farms it's about 20.000 employees. 38 percent of production goes to foreign markets. An important production sector for our economy which must be protected above all from fraud. Indeed, it is estimated that the market lost abroad between fraud and misleading advertising amount to approx 500 million euros.
