Coldiretti raises the alarm: Italian cheeses are at risk of extinction. Or rather, from 31 December 2021 there will no longer be the obligation to indicate the origin of the milk on the labels , which therefore may not be Italian.

The Italian names of cheeses will remain. But your parmesan or your store-bought mozzarella could be made with imported milk. Or the cheeses themselves could be copies of the Italian ones, but imported from abroad.

This liberalization of foreign cheeses and foreign milk, through the decay of the indications of origin on the labels of cheeses and dairy products, could not only jeopardize the Made in Italy, invading the market of false Italian cheeses, but heavily affect the quality of this last.

Cheese and dairy products could be made from milk of mixed French, German or non-European origin. The crisis would fall on the Italian milk supply chain, but also on consortia and producers of Italian cheeses and dairy products.

How did we get to this point?

Cheese labels: Made in Italy at risk

The president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini has spoken in recent days of “a very dangerous step backwards from a path of transparency”, not only to the detriment of consumers, but also of producers. If with the end of the obligation there is no extension, not only the quality, but an entire important sector of the agri-food chain will risk becoming impoverished, to the detriment of individual citizens and jobs. Product falsifications will be uncontrollable.

The problem of standards becomes a problem of quality and health

Incidentally, we are not simply talking about saving Italy from yet another productive crisis with an appeal that may seem protectionist, as if one were aiming at the patriotic spirit of the Italians.
At the base there is a quality problem that will have an impact on our diet.
And therefore on our health.

In fact, in addition to the gap of one hundred billion in lost earnings that already exists thanks to the falsifications of Italian products, the rules that guarantee the control and quality of the material and processing would be invalidated . In fact, Italy expects its breeders to observe stringent rules to guarantee quality and safety.

In other countries this is not the case: the competition wins, without respect for the control rules of the supply chain and the guarantees to maintain a high standard of production.

In summary, without an extension of the label obligation we are not just selling out.
We are telling the Italians that we don’t even know how the cheeses they will buy on the shelves are made, in spite of every safety criterion.

The crisis that threatens to penalize farmers and not just citizens

Italy is currently a leader in the quality of dairy products, with 56 cheeses with PDO and PGI designation of origin and 503 traditional regional specialties. But all this risks disappearing, as has already happened with the sugar mill crisis.
“With one out of two Italian barns having closed its doors in the last decade, guaranteeing a fair price for milk means saving the farmers”, continues Prandini.

But how will it come not only to a fair price, but to saving many jobs, if our cheeses are crushed by foreign competition, depriving citizens of the right to choose what to bring to their tables and to favor our territory and our excellences, already so plundered and penalized by the European Union?