In a NY Times article today, it was reported that due to illegal trash dumping, sales of prized Italian buffalo mozzarella have dropped (40%!!) due to possible dioxin, a carcinogen, contamination. Apparently South Korea has even banned imports of the cheese, much to many government officials’ dismay.
Officials and other stakeholders in the industry are trying to convince the public – the world – that there is no reason to be concerned. They say it’s a case of “criminals making a counterfeit product from God-knows-what.”
“To send a message of concern, Italian health officials are meeting Wednesday to discuss the scale of any contamination and how to end it. Harder to fix is the larger problem: for decades the Camorra, the Naples organized crime group, has made a profitable business illegally dumping trash, and no one has stopped it.
For now, there are two investigations running. One concerns the larger problem of crime and why Naples periodically floods over with its own refuse. The other focuses on complicity between shady mozzarella producers and local officials who reportedly knew about the contamination.”
Lessons to take from this incident:
1. To continue serving pizza and other traditional dishes, restaurants in Italy have switched to cow mozzarella cheese; customers refuse to risk consuming tainted (but oh so loved) buffalo mozzarella cheese, even if it is certified. Lesson: Businesses should take responsibility to provide customers with the safe products they demand (start demanding, people!!).
2. To get attention from authorities so that the problem can be corrected, Italians are widely boycotting the purchase and use of the cheese. And South Korea is following suit. Lesson: Squeaky wheels DON’T get the most grease; gigantic squeaky wheels do. When people form large groups, especially when it involves keeping wallets closed, authorities listen.
3. Italians know that eating carcinogens is bad. Lesson: pesticides on produce are carcinogenic. Lead in toys is bad. Low-quality products do us no good; we can all demand higher standards too (start demanding, people!!).
