Puglia’s Minister of Agriculture Responds Strongly to the New York Times’ Article on Italian Olive Oil
New York, NY (PRWEB) February 18, 2014 -- “We are the folks who guarantee quality and too often get damaged from food fraud. Americans should learn from us how to make healthy and delicious products”, says Mr. Fabrizio Nardoni, Minister of Agriculture of the Puglia region of Italy, replying to the New York Times’ piece “Extra Virgin Suicide,” published last January 25th, 2014 (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/24/opinion/food-chains-extra-virgin-suicide.html?_r=0) . “As one of the major extra-virgin olive oil producing region, Pugliese growers are the victims of the dangerous trend of Italian sounding products made in USA that have been damaging our economic and entrepreneurial system as these products completely bypasses the appropriate inspections that the European Union members are subject to.”
Together with the Movimento Turismo del Vino Puglia, a Consortium of wine producers from the homonymous region, Mr. Nardoni was in New York to promote and support the large variety of wines and olive oils from Puglia at the event “Raise a Glass to Puglia”, which took place at the GD Cucine showroom in Chelsea on February 3rd.
“All Americans who have been appreciating the wines, olive oils and excellent products from Puglia have been given an instrumental lesson on food quality. They should understand that they are part of a country of counterfeit and unhealthy foods,” Mr. Nardoni continues.
The Regional Minister explains that due to the series of cartoons published by the newspaper, The New York Times’ readers around the world now believe that the olive oil produced in Italy is all counterfeit. Nardoni points the finger at the US instead, “They should explain why their legislators have not taken action against those olive oils produced in California that claim to be Italian. Those products passed off as Italian lead American consumers who have read the NYT article to believe that they are the result of a distorted production system (the Italian system), which is ironic since the Italians actually represent excellent and reputable producers with great expertise.”
Angelica Schiavone, Colangelo and Partners Public Relations, +1 (646) 624-2885 Ext: 175, [email protected]
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