(ANSA) - ROME - Exactly 30 years after the birth of the PDO brand, the traffic light label on certified cheeses risks making many symbolic dishes of Made in Italy disappear from the tables, from caprese with buffalo mozzarella from Campania to spaghetti with tomato sauce with Parmigiano Reggiano, risotto with Gorgonzola.
This is the alarm from Afidop, the Association of Italian PDO Cheeses which, with the Protection Consortia, are launching a social campaign that focuses on 10 iconic Italian dishes where cheese is the distinctive ingredient, a sector worth 4 billion of euros to production and employs 26 thousand operators.
In fact, it is proven that the Nutri-Score discourages the consumption of foods recommended in a healthy diet and fundamental in balanced menus if included within a correct lifestyle.
According to an Ipsos survey for the Waste Watcher International Observatory, in fact, for 3 out of 4 consumers the nutritional information on the label can influence the choices in the cart and 4 out of 10 would change consumption due to the colors on the labels
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In practice, all the flagship DOP cheeses of Italy in the world end up in the crosshairs of the Nutri-Score: Asiago, Gorgonzola, Grana Padano, Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano.
"We say no to the Nutri-Score to labels based on reference quantities disconnected from consumption habits in the daily diet - declares the president of Afidop, Antonio Auricchio - these are misleading tools that devalue the image of PDOs and discourage the consumption of our dishes trivializing the nutritional values of our products. We support correct and complete information to the consumer for a healthy and balanced diet and for this reason we join with those, in Italy and in Europe, who consider the Nutri-Score a deceptive system and urge the decision-maker public to make a wall against the implementation of this proposal ".
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