Italian alert notification mistakes cheese made of cow milk by ewe-cheese

The product the Italian authorities notified on with the European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASSF) concerning contamination with shiga toxin-causing Escherichia coli was not ewe-cheese, but cheese made of cow milk. Accoridng to a press release by the Romanian Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety National Authority (ANSVSA),  the Italian authorities admitted that by mistake they mentioned a cheese assortment coming from SC Bradet.

“On March 18, at the request of the Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety National Authority (ANSVSA) to clarify and complete the information sent through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, the Italian authorities admitted that, by mistake, in the initial alert notification of March 16, 2016, they mentioned a cheese assortment coming from SC Bradet, produced from sheep milk, instead of a cheese made of cow milk. The ANSVSA requested the amendment be made on the RASSF portal, too, on the section available to the public,” the ANSVSA states.

According to the Romanian food safety body, “the alert notification, modified on March 18 and posted by the Italian authorities only in the RASFF section available to the relevant authorities of the member states, includes an analysis bulletin, issued on March 17, 2016, which doesn’t mention information such as: the name of the producer, the exact product assortment, the batch number, the production date, the expiration date.”

“This partial analysis bulletin points out that the cheese sample was collected in a hospital in Florence (Italy) on March 14, 2016. The verotoxigenic genes were identified in the analysed sample and the Esterichia coli strain is trying to be isolated,” the ANSVSA argued.

A notification from Italy dated March 16, 2016, has been registered with the European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASSF) concerning contamination with shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in sheep milk cheese from Romania. The notification was classified as alert.