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May 17, 2008 1:24:02 AM CDT

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Italy Recalls Famed Mozzarella  

Posted Mar 28, 08 1:15 PM CDT in Science & Health,  Arts & Living,  World    Editor's Choice

(newser) – Fear of contamination today forced Italy to recall its celebrated mozzarella cheese, Reuters reports. Rome is withdrawing the cheese of 25 companies in the Campania region near Naples, source of the country’s best buffalo mozzarella, after a garbage crisis is thought to have spread cancer-causing dioxin. The European Commission had threatened a trade ban; South Korea and Japan have halted imports.

The contaminating dioxin likely came from locals burning trash and industrial waste in streets and fields. “We are at the historical minimum level of sales,” said one cheese dealer, but Italy’s foreign minister said he wasn’t worried. “This is a limited phenomenon,” he noted. After the recall, “we're convinced that we can restore confidence” in “a symbol of Italian gastronomy.”

Source Reuters

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Italy Recalls Famed Mozzarella
Packs of Italian mozzarella made from buffalo milk in the Campania region, are seen in a shop in Nice, southern France, Friday, March 28, 2008.   (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
Italy Recalls Famed Mozzarella
A pizza with mozzarella cheese is prepared at a restaurant in downtown Naples, southern Italy, Thursday, March 27, 2008.   (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italy Recalls Famed Mozzarella
A biologist analyzes buffalo milk in a dairy farm for buffalo mozzarella cheese, in Capua, near Naples, southern Italy, Thursday, March 27, 2008.   (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italy Recalls Famed Mozzarella
A mozzarella cheese producer holds up a "treccia" (braid) of buffalo mozzarella during a demonstration organized by mozzarella producers to prove the quality of their cheese in Rome, March 27, 2008.   (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)
Italy Recalls Famed Mozzarella
Angela, a buffalo cow, is brought to a demonstration organized by buffalo mozzarella cheese producers to prove the quality of their cheese, outside the Lazio Region offices, in Rome, March 27, 2008.   (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)
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Italy  • recall  • European Commission  • cheese  • contaminated food  • mozzarella  • Campania


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