The story of Italian cheese and the milk powder

milk powder and italian cheeses

European Union have asked to Italy to allow the production of cheeses with milk powder. In June, European Commission rebuked Italy, because of an Italian law that prohibits the production of cheese using milk powder


Why EU ask the liberalization of cheese production to Italy

Today, Italian laws provides that in Italy the cheese can be made only with milk (50% of Italian milk is used for the production of DOP cheeses), a specific choice that helps to preserve the quality of Italian dairy production.

Brussels does not force Italy to produce cheese with milk powder, but ask to abrogate the law that prevent the production to adjust our legislation to the other European countries. In this time, our laws are hindering the free movement of goods.

If Italy accepted the request, it could be a big damage to Italian dairy industry: cheese is one of the Italian excellence known worldwide and represent an important part of Italian food exports.

Coldiretti, the largest organization of Italian farmers, disapproved the EU decision because it is against to the interests of consumers, since it has not made mandatory to indicate the origin of the products in terms of geographical origin and raw materials. Here, the declaration of Coldiretti regarding the Italian Sounding in summary:

  1. 25% of mozzarella sold in Italy is made with rennet that came from abroad and with no indication of origin on the label
  2. In Europe (but not in Italy) is allowed the sale of Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano’s imitation
  3. In supermarkets you find oil bottles with not clear labels about how the mixtures are composed and by which country they are from.
  4. In the countries of northern Europe it allowed sweeten the wine to increase its alcohol content.

Considering that in Europe the big producers of milk powered are France and Germany, if Italy will not oppose to this request, French and German will be the only beneficiaries of this law.




Source: this article is a free translation of La storia dei formaggi con il latte in polvere

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