An investigation by the Carabinieri’s Anti-Sophistication Unit (NAS) into ethnic restaurants and imported food warehouses has led to allegations of serious irregularities in one out of two establishments. And to the seizure of 128 tons of food worth an estimated 5.3 million euros. Expired or poorly preserved products, incomprehensible labels, outlawed imports.
Ethnic restaurants, hygienic deficiencies in 242 establishments
242 premises of the 515 inspected in Italy revealed serious hygienic deficiencies. Inadequate facilities and procedures, poor storage conditions, and expired food. But also products imported without complying with the rules, labels that do not meet European standards, and treatments banned as dangerous, such as refreezing thawed food.
The NAS has opened a Pandora’s box in a sector, the restaurant industry in Italy, that until now has boasted a solid history of widespread compliance with rules on hygiene and food safety. And yet it is permeable to infiltration by the underworld, domestic and imported.
‘All you can eat’ or shortage of inspectors, what is the real problem?
Ethnic restaurants-so-called all you can eatrestaurants, in particular-were found to be irregular in 48 percent of cases. The NAS challenged 477 violations of the law, imposed fines of 411 thousand euros, charged 23 operators and closed 22 businesses.
Health Minister Giulia Grillo intervened with an almost frivolous comment. ‘Welcome ethnic cuisines, everyone likes sushi, but ‘all you can eat’ cannot rhyme with risk of food poisoning; the rules apply to everyone. People’s health is not put at risk by illegal practices to maintain bargain prices‘.
She should, if anything, explain, the minister, why half of the premises that the NAS surprise inspected were found to be irregular. Where were the ASLs, responsible for issuing permits-after verifying that premises, equipment, and procedures meet sanitation requirements-and for routine inspections?
The problem, known to those in the field but ignored by the generalist press, is that a large proportion of health inspectors are retiring and the related job positions are being extinguished. It will benefit public accounts but not the employment of deserving young people or the level of food safety protection in Italy.
Conclusions
Nothing personal against the minister, mind you. This phenomenon, like other woes of the country, also began under previous government of different color. And in the democratic alternation of inefficiencies and frivolities we cannot but pay tribute, once again, to the Benemerita.
‘The interest that everyone takes in ensuring that the Royal Carabinieri Force (an elected part of the army) proceeds from strength to strength is by reason precisely of the prestige in which it is held and the indefatigable and reported services that make it everywhere truly a credit to the country‘ (1)
A Thank You to the Carabinieri from all of us, then! With encouragement to continue his valuable work also on the allergen front, which is underreported and misreported even in bars and public establishments, as well as in restaurants (ethnic and italic).
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Source: report of the Internal Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives to the government, 24.6.1865
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
