Blue Balls in Italy Put Mozzarella in Question

A case of blue balls had Italian police confiscating 70,000 balls of mozzarella cheese in the area of Turin. Yahoo! News reported that consumers who were purchasing the cheese were expecting to get fresh milky-white mozzarella cheese but instead got white cheese balls that had a bluish tint when exposed to the air. Police were notified of the matter after several consumers reported the mozzarella balls turning blue and when one consumer decided to get them involved.

Samples of the blue balls have been sent to laboratories for testing of foreign substances. Results of the tests are not expected back for a few days. According to the Health Ministry of Italy, the European Commission and German authorities have been notified of the tainted mozzarella balls. No reports mention what Germany has to say about the case of blue balls and so far there has been no reports of sickness associated with the mozzarella.

Italy is known for its cheese and according to the report this comes as a fairly big embarrassment to the country. A redeeming factor for Italy is that the blue balled mozzarella was made in Germany for an Italian company. Neither the companies name is being released.

This is not the first time Italy has had a problem with mozzarella ball production. In early 2010, the prized mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk became suspect when trace's of cow's milk were found in it. In 2008, high levels of dioxin were found in samples of buffalo milk. Dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzodioxins) are a group of compounds that act as environmental pollutants. The tests scared consumers and led some countries to suspend imports.

Legislation is being pushed to make producers include the origin of ingredients on all labels, according to the Yahoo report. Mozzarella made from buffalo milk already has the European Protected Designation of Origin label. If the legislation passes then every milk based product including yogurt, powdered milk and other cheese will have a label indicating where the ingredients came from.

Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100620/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_blue_mozzarella

http://news.scotsman.com/health/Red-alert-over-blue-mozzarella.6373391.jp