Italy's association for pasta producers has said it is opposing a law that will require the labelling of the origin of the grain used to manufacture pasta.
Last month, Associazione delle Industrie del Dolce e della Pasta Italiane (Aidepi) filed an appeal with the Administrative Regional Court of Lazio against the law on wheat labelling, which will come into effect in February 2018, reports Ansa.
The president of Aidepi, Riccardo Felicetti, said that the association had resorted to this measure because the law is not transparent and does not properly inform consumers. He added that shoppers “will end up believing that what matters for a quality pasta is the origin of wheat, which is not true”.
According to Felicetti, the decree also does not encourage the production of quality grain and reduces Italy’s competitiveness abroad because it incurs additional costs for Italy’s farmers.
Own Goal
Meanwhile, the vice-president of Italian pasta company Barilla, Paolo Barilla, warned that pasta cannot be produced exclusively from Italian grain, as only 10% of the grain is of excellent quality, 50% is of average quality, and the remaining 40% is insufficient to produce the quality of pasta required.
He said that the law represents an “own goal” for Italy, because if only Italian grain were to be used, pasta production would drop by 30-40%, reports daily Corriere della Sera.
Barilla also rejected accusations that the industry is importing grain because it costs less, adding that grain from the US is twice as expensive as Italian.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
