Milky heart

Milky heart
Magazine: April 2008

Mozzarella di Bufala Campana Dop is in the “heart” of the Big Apple: the Italian Obikà-Mozzarella Bar has arrived in New York. Despite recent dioxin scandals no fork has trembled in the three locations dedicated to mozzarella. « The clients feel safeguarded by our tracking system and international certifi cations», confi rms Mattia Pierantoni Cerquozzi, the New York manager. No drop in sales for the lovely creamy balls that swish around in the Obikà ‘aquarium’ or in the three shops of the Milanese Centro della Mozzarella. Similar ‘secure’ addresses can be found all over Italy. An alternative “label” can be found in Casirate d’Adda, in the Bergamo region, where the agricultural company Agricola Casarotti breeds 100 buffalos to produce 40 kilos of mozzarella daily. But in the collective imagination mozzarella is not a northern cheese. The much admired “laudatissimum caseum of Campo Cedicio” cited by Plinius the Old corresponds to the forefather of the cow’s milk mozzarella, in the area between Mondragone and Volturno. The modern cow’s milk “fi or di latte” produced in the XVII century was a typical product from Agro Pontino in the Bolognia region. Today the product is a Specialità Tradizionale Garantita produced by artisans especially in the areas comprising Frosinone, Latina, Campobasso, Avellino, Benevento, Caserta, Naples, Salerno, Potenza, Taranto, Foggia and Bari, for which the DOP “Fior di Latte dell’Appennino Meridionale” has been requested.

La Grande Bufala Show
Recently the healthiness of the mozzarella di bufala Campana has been under discussion following some cases of dioxin contamination, a hormonal-similar element that is potentially poisonous. With a stop in export procedures, sales restrictions and analysis of the 1.600 companies a media case has erupted that has put the sector in crisis. For Coldiretti (national Agricultural organisation) the loss in turnover could amount to 1½ million euro a day, considering that half of all Italians buy the cheese for a total cost of 280 million euro. Only 16% of this cheese product is sold abroad. «This exaggerated alarm has cast a shadow also on regulated cheese products and the enforced closures of plants for offi cial inspections have confi rmed suspicions», comments Enrico Parente owner of the Agrozootecnica Marchesa di Campania Felix at Grazzanise in the Caserta region. « For my mozzarelle I have adopted a programme of auto control, imposed by law for all exports. The bottom line is, is that the DOP is a guarantee and the consumer has to trust the product. A good parameter for the choice should be the price, which should never be too low. Our product cannot be imitated thanks to our soil, rich with ash and potassium which results in early maturation of the pasture and gives the milk a special fl avour». “La Grande Bufala” which will be held from 30th May - 2nd June in the district of Eboli and the Valle del Sele will contribute to help the relaunch of the product.