According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Barbara Ferrante’s vegan dairy cannot call its products “cheese.” And no, it’s not just a declaration, it’s the content of an official warning that the owners received, which orders the immediate removal of the name, under penalty of fines of up to 30 thousand euros
The Barbara Ferrante’s vegan dairy cannot call its products “cheese”, says the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry. And no, it’s not a verbal statement, it’s the content of one official warning that the owners have seen delivered, which requires the immediate removal of the name, under penalty fines of up to 30 thousand euros.
The warning has left the owners of the dairy incredulous as well as embittered, who will however comply with the imposition to avoid incurring long and very onerous legal procedures, which could still end with the payment of a significant fine, especially for a small commercial business.
The news appeared not only in various press outlets, but also in a post on Facebook by the ex-parliamentarian Paolo Bernini.
Furthermore, on November 28, the dairy had in fact confirmed that it had received the warning as a response to a comment from a reader of their page who, declaring himself an omnivore, refers to the warning in a way that is anything but in agreement.
The Barbara Ferrante’s vegan dairy began its activities four years ago, in the middle of the pandemic, with the aim of creating completely plant-based productsand currently offers an assortment of 22 products.
Ours is abusiness based on ethics – the owners write on their website – We are convinced that if people became aware of the horror that hides behind products of animal origin, our way of eating would change. We want to be an active part of this transformation and we offer to those who wish to face the change a path made of new, but at the same time ancient flavours. It’s at this future without violence that we want to make our contribution
Vegan cheeses
Barbara Ferrante’s dairy is certainly not the first, nor the only one, to produce vegan cheeses: these products are all plant-based, and differ greatly in taste and consistency based on the starting products but also on their processing ( just like “traditional” cheeses).
As Animal Equality explainsan international organization for the protection of animals bred for food, there are cheeses based on fermented rice, coconut oil, and even with dried fruit, as well as based on legume flours (especially chickpeas), and follow rigorous procedures of production.
Vegan products and cultured meat
The story has many similarities with the “fight” against cultured meat. Our country has in fact “distinguished itself” in November 2023 as first and for a long time only country in the world to ban it. With 159 votes in favor of the majority, 34 abstentions and 53 votes against, the Chamber of Deputies definitively approved the DDL (strongly supported by Coldiretti), which prohibits the production, sale, administration, distribution or promotion of foods based on cell cultures , predicting fines from 10 to 60 thousand euros.
In February this year, however, the European Commission rejected the Italian law, closing the TRIS (Technical Regulations Information System) procedure early, explaining that our country, with the aforementioned ban, has violated EU legislation. And just a month ago the EU rejected a similar ban approved in Hungary.
We have therefore started talking about it again, even in our country, and above all to look for increasingly innovative and sustainable ways for the production of this food. So much so that last month theUniversity of Turin launched a campaign crowdfunding for a research project on cultured meat, CultMeat.
In addition to finding sufficient funds, the objective is to bring citizens closer to a research which is still much discussed but which could really contribute fight food insecurity and intensive farmingcauses, in addition to animal suffering, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.
The dairy’s website currently still lists the word “cheese”, but will most likely remove it soon.
