ROME (ITALPRESS) – In the year of Covid, Italians’ consumption of dried fruit increased by 9%, but there is an alarm for the invasion of shelled hazelnuts from Turkey, from which 2/3 of the total used for snacks and desserts arrive , despite the warnings for the high levels of carcinogenic aflatoxins. This is what emerges from an analysis by Coldiretti on the basis of Ismea data, which show that despite the limitations on international trade imposed by the pandemic, the flow of foreign product that is passed off as Italian has not stopped. Foreign imports have practically doubled in the last ten years (+ 98%), and of the 61 million kilos that crossed national borders in the year of Covid, almost 40 million kilos are of Turkish origin, which is also the world‘s largest producer. . In second place is Italy where in the last ten years the area cultivated with hazelnuts in Italy has gone from about 71,000 hectares to 88,747 hectares, according to Coldiretti analysis on Istat data, with general growth in all areas of the country and the conquest of three designations of origin for the Piedmont IGP hazelnut, the Tonda di Giffoni IGP and the Tonda Gentile Romana Dop. The third producing country is the United States, ahead of Georgia. This situation, with the increase in imports, despite the growth of plants in Italy, in the absence of an obligation of traceability of the hazelnuts used in derivatives, risks – Coldiretti complains – of giving a misleading image of the quality of national hazelnuts that are frequently cut, mixed or substituted with imported ones. Hence the need – concluded Coldiretti – to bring the added value of transparency to the market with the obligation to indicate on the label the origin of all those foods that are still anonymous, starting with those processed, as in the case of the hazelnuts used. in the confectionery industry. (ITALPRESS). ads / com 23-Apr-21 16:52
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