Are you among that 78% of consumers who consider “100% Italian wheat” a guarantee of quality? Excellent, but be careful: the “made in Italy” and the “100% Italian” are not the same at all. Thanks to the ministerial decrees that impose transparency, today you have the tools to decipher the label and unmask the products that hide foreign wheat, perhaps behind a clearly tricolor packaging.
Because the wording “Made in Italy” is not enough
By the law, a product is “made in Italy” if the last substantial transformation (mealted) takes place on our territory. This means that a pasta produced in Italy with Canadian or Australian wheat is legally an Italian product.
This is where the alarm is triggered: over the years, the Antitrust (AGCM) has sanctioned several giants (even with millionaire fines, for example with brands such as Lidl/Combino) for using too evocative packaging of Italy, ingesting in the consumer the false belief that even the raw material was national.
The 3 data that never lie (and where to find them)
Your super-point is on the back of the package. The mandatory wordings, unfortunately often written in small characters, are the only element of total transparency. You have to look for:
Why prefer Italian wheat/EU
The choice of wheat is not only a question of food patriotism, but it crucial your health and environmental sustainability crucial. The main difference lies in agricultural practices, in particular in the use of Glyphosate.
Glyphosate is the most common herbicide in the world, known to be the active ingredient of products such as the RoundP. Although its use is legal and regulated everywhere and confirmed for another 10 years also in Europe, the way in which it is used is the difference:
Safety and risks
Numerous investigations conducted by consumer associations (such as the life jacket and Altroconsumo) have often detected glyphosate residues in pastes produced with foreign wheat blends, although generally under the limits of European law (which are still among the most severe in the world).
Although the quantity does not exceed legal limits, many consumers prefer to choose 100% Italian or EU wheat to avoid (or almost) the ingestion of glyphosate and other pesticides, especially considering the daily consumption of pasta.
For our part, the advice is always to read the full label. Transparency is the most powerful weapon of the consumer. If you choose products with the wording “Country of cultivation and milling: Italy”, you are also choosing a supply chain which, by law, provides many more guarantees on the absence of residues. In addition, choosing a biological pasta allows you to further lower the presence of traces of pesticides that we ingest willingly or nolent every day.
They could also be interested in:
