Cheeses and dairy products made from milk powder: Italy reacts to the EU

SAN FRANCISCO - Sept. 17, 2015 - PRLog -- The recent European farmers'protests in the dairy sector - at the Brenner Pass and in Brussels - have focused attention on the production of cheese and other dairy products with the use of powdered milk. In fact, there is a discrepancy between the Italian and the EU rules.

It all started in late May when the European Commission decided to open an infringement procedure against Italy, as in the beautiful country the legislation prohibits the production of cheese with the use, even partial, of milk powder (Law no. 138 of 11 April 1974).

Only the products with a protected designation of origin (DOP products) are out of this controversy, because for them there is the mandatory obligation to use the milk of the production area (this applies to the Grana Padano, the Parmigiano, the Gorgonzola, the aleggio, the Asiago and other delicious cheeses); yet, all the other generic cheeses, according to the EU, can be made with the powdered milk. And producers wouldn't even be required to write on the label if they used fresh or powder milk.

The European Community legislation permits, national legislation prohibits. This creates two distortions in the market: one is related to the Italian processing industry, which is in a competitive disadvantage against the dairy industry out of Italy which can use this technology. And most of all, the consequence of this affect the foreign consumers, who could buy imported products potentially made with powdered milk.

In this climate of confusion, increased transparency towards consumers would be appreciated.
Yet, there are also some realities that allow consumers abroad to buy Italian products with the certainty of being buying quality. Sensibus.com is an online cheese shop offering American consumers the opportunity to purchase products, especially cheese, from different European countries: DOP products, as well as other food products without any protected status, yet all made with fresh and top quality ingredients.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Ci4gZntyQ