Made in Italy

This morning on “Good Morning Italy” (well, that’s not really what it’s called, but it’s close), they were talking about made in Italy products. I usually don’t watch the show, just tune in in time for the weather and then switch it off, but I thought the topic was interesting, so I decided to watch for a little bit longer.
Of course, I remember hearing about the topic a few years ago and how the Italian government was cracking down on this type of fraud, but it seems to have gotten worse lately. The number of fake products from other countries (China being the one most frequently named) have increased. In fact, there was an article on the news a few weeks ago showing a shipload of canned tomatoes in Naples that were from China but looked like they were made in Italy.

One of the funniest products they showed this morning was “pecorino di mucca”. I know some of you are already laughing. For those who don’t get it, let me explain. Pecorino is cheese made from sheep’s milk – sheep being “pecora” in Italian. “Mucca” is cow. So basically, the package was touting, sheep milk cheese made from cow milk.

This product was obvious, but many of them aren’t as easy to spot. They also showed olive oil and polenta which had names and packaging that looked and sounded Italian and weren’t so easy to distinguish. I’ve fallen into the trap a couple of times when I was looking for some typical Italian food back in the States and ended up buying something nasty.

If you want the true flavor or quality of the Italian product, read the label closely, including the fine print, to make sure it is made in Italy. Look for the DOP (Protected Denomination of Origin) mark on the package to ensure that it’s genuine. Believe me, there’s a big difference.

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