In organized crime country, even the cheese can be corrupt

I was all set to try the famed Italian mozzarella last night, but then decided it had to be either the handmade gnocchi OR the water buffalo curds. Not both. Now I read that many conscientious chefs in this gloriously food friendly country don’t trust the traditional cheese, due to cases of dioxin contamination from overflowing trash in Naples. The NYT reported on the issue in 2008:

For years, the nation’s paralyzed political class has done little to halt huge-scale illegal dumping of trash, some of it toxic, around Naples. That area happens to produce some of the best mozzarella. A new trash crisis peaked yet again, and last week fears that food might be contaminated seemed confirmed when health officials announced elevated levels of the carcinogen dioxin in samples of buffalo mozzarella.

Italy’s Trash Crisis Taints Reputation of a Prized Cheese (New York Times)

Maybe I’ll still venture a taste. The LA Times provided an update in May that suggests that only a small percentage of the 2000 buffalo dairies in Campania were effected, and that EU monitors confirmed that none of the DOP certified product were tainted.

The consortium helps monitor cheese production in order to meet DOP standards. But last year health officials found elevated levels of dioxin in several samples of mozzarella. Chianese told me that when EU monitors arrived to run tests, they discovered low levels of contamination in milk from about 20 of the 2,000-odd buffalo dairies in Campania. "Not one bocconcino [a miniature mozzarella ball] of DOP cheese was found to have dioxin," he said. But the problem was exacerbated when a trash collection crisis erupted in Naples at about the same time, and a reported 100,000 tons of garbage rotted on city streets until the federal government stepped in to clean it up. Of course, buffaloes do not graze on Naples sidewalks. Nevertheless, the stain spread to mozzarella, because the crisis underscored illegal toxic waste dumping in Campania by the Camorra, a powerful Naples crime syndicate that was the subject of the 2008 film "Gomorra," based on a bestselling book by journalist Roberto Saviano. The movie exposed Camorra infiltration of almost every aspect of Neapolitan life, including waste management.

Italy's Campania region is where fresh mozzarella roams (Los Angeles Times)