Mozzarella Campana alla diossina? Non è scandalo solo in italia

[victorino]

Perché in italia non si fa informazione su questo scandalo? Sembra ci sia censura concordata tra politici e media, per sapere delle vicende e dei sequestri negli allevamenti campani bisogna leggere i giornali stranieri. Perchè la vendita della mozzarella campana non viene vietata nei negozi italiani? Ci rendiamo conto di che scandalo è montato in tutto il mondo meno che in Italia sulla mozzarella campana alla diossina? Non vorrei che l’italia non sollevi il caso per garantire qualche posto di lavoro e qualche spicciolo in Campania sulla salute di tutti.

Intanto la Corea vieta le importazioni, traduzione dal Korea Times di oggi:

Le autorità coreane hanno sospeso il commercio e l'importazione di mozzarella dall'Italia dopo che i media stranieri avevano riportato i rischi di presenza di diossina all'interno di essa. Il Ministro per l'alimentazione, per l'agricoltura e la pesca ha riferito oggi che è stato notificato ai rivenditori ed importatori di non venderla. Il ministro sta attendendo una risposta ufficiale dal governo italiano per una conferma sulla sicurezza del prodotto.
Secondo il ministro, circa 10 tonnellate di mozzarella di latte di bufala vengono importate ogni anno in Corea. Alcune di esse vengono consumate in ristoranti italiani e in catene di pizzerie o vendute ai consumatori in catene di discount o centri commerciali. La diossina è un prodotto chimico velenoso che può essere molto pericoloso anche in piccole dosi.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...123_21186.html

Prima pagina dell’Independent del 22 Marzo:




Italy's toxic waste crisis, the Mafia – and the scandal of Europe's mozzarella
By Michael McCarthy and John Phillips in Rome
Saturday, 22 March 2008

It may be the moment when the throwaway society meets its retribution. A shadow this weekend hangs over one of the great staples of modern European life – Italy's mozzarella cheese.

The topping on a billion pizzas, the magic ingredient in a million salads, is at the centre of a major food scare involving pollution, corruption, the Mafia and southern Italy's remarkable crisis in waste management.
It centres on the buffalo milk used to produce the purest form of the rubbery, cream-coloured delicacy, now as prized an Italian export as extra virgin olive oil – mozzarella di bufala. High levels of dioxins, potentially hazardous pollutant chemicals, have been found in buffalo milk in a group of dairies in Campania, the southern province centring on Naples where most mozzarella production takes place.

Italy's public health authorities believe that the contamination is the result of illegal dumping of toxic waste in Campania, where the waste industry is under the control of the Camorra, the local branch of the Mafia, and where Naples and its region are undergoing a major waste management crisis, with disposal facilities either broken or full, and rubbish piling up in the streets.
The scale of the problem is such that it is becoming the cautionary tale par excellence of the modern throwaway society, showing how a major city can be swallowed up by its own refuse and making Naples and its region a symbol for filth around the world.

Over the past week, Italian authorities have searched dozens of buffalo dairies and seized milk samples for tests after higher-than-permitted levels of dioxins were discovered in products from 29 mozzarella makers. After government chemists had analysed milk samples taken from some 2,000 herds of buffalo, the herds attached to 66 dairies have been quarantined pending further investigations, and prosecutors in Naples have placed 109 people under investigation in connection with the inquiry, on suspicion of fraud and food poisoning. Already, sales of mozzarella across Italy are said to have fallen by up to 50 per cent.

Many Italians are naturally linking the buffalo milk contamination to the local waste and pollution scandal. "Of course we don't know for sure scientifically, but the high rate of dioxin is most likely linked to what the buffaloes ate," an Italian environmental official admitted yesterday, adding that the buffalo "grazed in areas where we know that toxic waste has been dumped in recent years".

Health officials are stressing that Italian mozzarella itself is perfectly safe to eat. However, the growing crisis is causing national alarm, and yesterday the consortium of buffalo mozzarella makers in Campania took out full-page advertisements in La Repubblica and other national newspapers outlining the system of controls that are in place for its top-branded mozzarella, which carries the designation DOP (Denominazione d'Origine Protetta), meaning it has certain protection and quality guarantees. Health officials, police, agricultural and cheese authorities all guarantee the safe production of DOP mozzarella, the advertisement said, adding that the dairies involved in the police seizures were not members of the consortium.
"Considering these norms, buffalo milk – before being transformed – is placed under the most stringent health and chemical controls which guarantee the safety and quality of Campania's DOP buffalo mozzarella," the advertisement said.

In Naples, the president of the Association of Authentic Neapolitan Pizza-makers, Antonio Pace, urged the authorities to determine which dairies were to blame so as to prevent damage to the nation's consumption of pizzas, in most of which mozzarella is a key ingredient.
The Minister for Agricultural Policy, Paolo De Castro, cautioned against irresponsible reporting of the inquiry and joined producers in reassuring the public that the risk from dioxins is minimal.
"A negative campaign has been mounted on this theme penalising the very many honest producers who are the overwhelming majority, who every day work for a product that is the pride of our quality agricultural food sector," he said.

The Italian agricultural lobby Coldiretti called for a rapid investigation, since buffalo mozzarella is such an important brand internationally as well as domestically. It said 33,000 tons, worth €300m (£234m), of DOP mozzarella is produced annually, employing some 20,000 people. Most DOP mozzarella is consumed in Italy, but 16 per cent is exported, mostly to European countries but also to Japan and Russia, Coldiretti said. The majority of mozzarella consumed in Britain is manufactured here, although delicatessens and major supermarkets also stock premium brands produced in Campania.
Earlier this year, health authorities in Naples began screening residents for dioxin contamination amid accusations that toxic waste was being illegally dumped in the area. A recent study by the World Health Organisation found that people living in Campania were not as healthy as residents in the rest of Italy. Mortality rates, particularly from some forms of cancer, are higher in the areas around Naples where the rubbish crisis is at its most severe.
This weekend, Neapolitan military and civilian authorities, struggling to cope with the city's rubbish crisis, called on citizens to keep all but the most perishable garbage at home over the Easter holiday to prevent the city's dumps being overwhelmed once again and fresh mountains of rubbish rotting in the streets.

"For the Easter holidays, don't aggravate the emergency – keep at home at least paper, wrapping and cardboard," begged General Franco Giannini, one of the heads of a special rubbish task force appointed earlier this year by the government of Romano Prodi, the caretaker Prime Minister.

----------------------------

ROME (AFP) — Sixty-six buffalo herds in the Naples region have been quarantined because of high levels of dioxin found in buffalo milk used to make mozzarella, the ANSA news agency reported Thursday.
Checks were continuing around the southern Italian city and nearby Caserta, an environment official told AFP, following contamination probably caused by the region's chronic waste management problem,

The Caserta region, which counts some 1,900 buffalo farms, is the heartland of buffalo milk mozzarella, a soft cheese served with tomatoes and basil in a Neopolitan speciality, the caprese salad.
"We carried out 109 checks in the past few days" at buffalo farms and cheesemakers, he said, adding that samples would be sent to a specialised laboratory in Teramo, in Italy's central Abruzzo region.

"Of course we don't know for sure scientifically, but the high rate of dioxin is most likely linked to what the buffaloes ate," he said.
He noted that the buffalo "grazed in areas where we know that toxic waste has been dumped in recent years."

Because of a dysfunctional waste disposal system, overloaded treatment centres have reached the tipping point several times since 1994, most recently at the end of December.

The problem is exacerbated by the local Camorra mafia, which controls many dumps in the region and makes a lucrative business out of shipping in industrial waste from companies in the north.

An animal disease prevention institute in Portici, near Naples, that has been monitoring milk and dairy products from 165 companies since January 2007 has cited dioxin "anomalies" at 25 of them.

All had bought milk from among the 66 farms where buffalo have been quarantined the past two weeks.
"To have a harmful effect on health a person would have to consume a large quantity every day over the long term," said an official at the Protici institute, Antonio Limone.

"People can continue to eat mozzarella without a problem thanks to the health service's checks," he told. ANSA.
Toxin scare hits mozzarella sales - BBC News
Sales of mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk have been hit by a contamination scare.

Eighty buffalo herds in the Naples area have been quarantined on suspicion that their milk may contain dangerous levels of dioxin.
The animals grazed on land where toxic industrial waste may have been illegally dumped by criminals.

The local Mafia - called the Camorra - have been making huge profits by dumping toxic waste in the region.
Tiny fraction

Production of buffalo mozzarella - one of Italy's most famous delicacies - has been hit by the dioxin scare.

Government laboratories are analysing milk samples taken from some 2,000 herds of buffalo which graze near Caserta, just north of Naples.
Government inspectors and scientists have cautioned that only a tiny fraction of Italy's total buffalo-milk production is affected by the quarantine orders.
They say that consumers would have to eat huge quantities of mozzarella cheese over a period of many months for the higher than normal levels of dioxin to affect their health.

But Italian consumers seem to want to take no risks, and sales of Neapolitan mozzarella cheese have declined by nearly 50% in recent weeks, according to farmers' associations.

--------------------------
Toxin scare hits mozzarella sales - BBC News

Sales of mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk have been hit by a contamination scare.

Eighty buffalo herds in the Naples area have been quarantined on suspicion that their milk may contain dangerous levels of dioxin.

The animals grazed on land where toxic industrial waste may have been illegally dumped by criminals.
The local Mafia - called the Camorra - have been making huge profits by dumping toxic waste in the region.

Tiny fraction
Production of buffalo mozzarella - one of Italy's most famous delicacies - has been hit by the dioxin scare.
Government laboratories are analysing milk samples taken from some 2,000 herds of buffalo which graze near Caserta, just north of Naples.

Government inspectors and scientists have cautioned that only a tiny fraction of Italy's total buffalo-milk production is affected by the quarantine orders.
They say that consumers would have to eat huge quantities of mozzarella cheese over a period of many months for the higher than normal levels of dioxin to affect their health.

But Italian consumers seem to want to take no risks, and sales of Neapolitan mozzarella cheese have declined by nearly 50% in recent weeks, according to farmers' associations.

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome
----------------

Dioxin Found in Some Italy Mozzarella
By NICOLE WINFIELD

ROME (AP) — Makers of Italy's prized buffalo mozzarella took out full-page ads in Italian newspapers Friday assuring consumers the cheese was safe after high levels of dioxin were found in some samples of buffalo milk.
The tainted products came from a few buffalo dairies in the southern Campania region, whose reputation as a top agricultural producer already has been tarnished by the months-old garbage crisis that has fueled fears of food contamination.

Dioxin, a chemical environmental pollutant, can be hazardous even in small amounts. When it accumulates in the body, it can be linked to cancer, birth defects and organ failure.

Over the past week, Italian authorities have searched dozens of buffalo dairies and seized milk samples for tests after higher-than-permitted levels of dioxin were discovered in products from 29 mozzarella makers, news reports said.

Prosecutors in Naples have placed 109 people under investigation in connection with the probe, on suspicion of fraud and food poisoning, the ANSA news agency reported.

On Friday, the consortium of buffalo mozzarella makers in Campania took out full-page ads in Corriere della Sera and other national newspapers outlining the system of controls that are in place for its top-branded mozzarella, which carries the designation DOP, meaning it has certain protection and quality guarantees.

Health officials, police, agricultural and cheese authorities all guarantee the safe production of DOP mozzarella, the ad said, adding that the dairies involved in the police seizures were not members of the consortium.
"Considering these norms, buffalo milk — before being transformed — is placed under the most stringent health and chemical controls which guarantee the safety and quality of Campania's DOP buffalo mozzarella," the ad said.
The Italian agricultural lobby Coldiretti called for a speedy investigation to determine which dairies were to blame, since buffalo mozzarella is such an important brand domestically and internationally.

The soft and subtly flavored mozzarella is a key ingredient in pizza, but also is eaten uncooked, often alongside prosciutto or with sliced tomatoes and basil.
Coldiretti said 33,000 tons, worth $462.69 million, of DOP mozzarella is produced annually, employing some 20,000 people. Most DOP mozzarella is consumed in Italy, but 16 percent is exported, mostly to European countries but also to Japan and Russia, Coldiretti said.

It was not clear what, if any, role Campania's garbage crisis has had in the mozzarella contamination. However, earlier this year Naples health authorities began screening residents for dioxin contamination amid accusations that toxic garbage was being dumped illegally by the mafia-controlled garbage industry in the area.

Naples and its surrounding area have been plagued by garbage crises over the past dozen years. Dumps close after filling up, and residents — afraid that toxic garbage is being dumped — block efforts to open new ones.
A recent study by the World Health Organization found that people living in Campania were not as healthy as residents in the rest of Italy. Mortality rates, particularly from some forms of cancer, are higher in the areas around Naples where the garbage crisis peaked.

Still, Renato Pizzuti, a regional epidemiologist, said a direct link to garbage contamination cannot be made.

"For sure, the population of the Campania region is suffering from some negative health factors, both in terms of mortality, above all, and for some pathologies in terms of morbidity." But in a recent interview with AP Television News, he stressed, "This cannot be directly linked to garbage."

Associated Press

[semipadano (POL)]

Sono la vergogna d'Europa.

[Ferruccio]

Il rimedio ce':la mozzarella ( anche burrate e burratine, treccioline etc,. ) pugliese che e' e di parecchio migliore della mozzarella campana.

Provate una burrata pugliese ! Un capolavoro !

[sciadurel]

detto con il cuore:
con tutti i sani e ottimi formaggi che abbiamo nelle regioni PadanoAlpine (almeno un paio per valle), non vedo che bisogno ci sia di mangiare prodotti stranieri oltretutto inquinati

[Max_s (POL)]

Anche io l'ho letto per la prima (e unica, prima di leggere qui) volta sul sito della CNN (link).

Perchè non lo dicono qui?

La stessa Cnn ce lo può far intuire:
" Most DOP mozzarella is consumed in Italy, but 16 percent is exported"
ovvero: l'84% del mercato è qui.

Ma non so per quanto ancora possano insabbiare... ne parla tutto il mondo...


Cmq fortunatamente non mangio mozzarella di bufala.

[Bèrghem]

detto con il cuore:
con tutti i sani e ottimi formaggi che abbiamo nelle regioni PadanoAlpine (almeno un paio per valle), non vedo che bisogno ci sia di mangiare prodotti stranieri oltretutto inquinati

Ovazione

Solo i coglioni vanno dietro a tutta la retorica dei media di regime sulla dieta mediterronea et similia. E ben sta a loro di ritrovarsela con la diossina.

[WindOfChange]

solo gli ignoranti possono cedere a tali psicosi.
La mozzarella campana è uno degli alimenti piu' sicuri e controllati in cricolazione.
In questo periodo ne mangio ancora di piu',come durante la psicosi aviaria,mangiavo ogni giorno pollo.e poi a voi leghisti e padanisti cosa frega,non avevate già detto che boicottavata comunque i prodotti del Sud?

lo si intuiva...

[YSBYSB]

Beh è un dato di fatto che all'estero sia più conosciuta la mozzarella di bufala del taleggio (ma molto meno del parmigiano reggiano!)...

Qualche giorno fa a Miami ho cenato in un ristorante italiano dove ho mangiato una mozzarella di bufala campana davvero squisita.
Tutti i convitati -non italiani- hanno gradito moltissimo.

Al di là di tutto, credo che sia un patrimonio da tutelare.

[pablito el drit]

meglio la toma!!!

[Max_s (POL)]

mej ol gurgunzöla.