Fancy Italian Mozzarella Has a Dark Secret About Its Origins

Is true Italian mozzarella a thing of the past?

Police in Puglia have seized three and a half tons of curd from a farm in the Murgia area. They believe that the curd was about to be used to produce inferior mozzarella. First of all, the curd was in a poor state of preservation, according to reports by The Independent. But worse? The curd may have come from Germany, of all places.

In fact, one in four mozzarella cheeses in Italy are made from industrial, foreign curd—not milk-based curd from Italy.

Roberto Moncalvo, who heads Coldiretti, a national farming group, said, "Given these new frauds and scams there's no time to waste in saving [the reputation of] 'made in Italy' and it must be made obligatory right away to indicate the origins of dairy products in order to guarantee transparency and health of consumers."

Not only is the cheese made from this imported stuff not very good, its presence depresses prices and could lead to the closure of Italian farms, Moncalvo points out.

In Italy, the top-quality mozzarella, which is made from buffalo milk and designated DOP, or Denominazone di Origine Portetta, must meet government standards and is regularly checked. But other grades of mozzarella may not be. Recently, quality and safety concerns have arisen regarding the beloved Italian cheese.

In 2010, an alert was sounded over mozzarella that was contaminated and had turned blue. In 2008, carcinogenic dioxin was found in buffalo milk thanks to dumping of toxic waste.

And now German curd is being imported into Italy to make the exalted Italian cheese. This fact only exacerbates tensions in the EU over Germany's dominance as an economic power.

Italy's olive oil industry—which happens to be the second-largest producer in the world—was rocked in 2015 with the revelation that seven top brands "sold fake extra-virgin." Hopefully this latest revelation will lead to tangible reform instead of a knee-jerk reaction from authorities and the international community.