Italy ordered checks on hundreds of mozzarella factories as part of safety measures following the detection of dioxin-tainted products, authorities said on Saturday.
The latest measures were decided together with EU health authorities, and were announced shortly after China imposed a ban on imports of mozzarella and Singapore told markets to suspend sales.
The Health Ministry in Rome said the first checks will involve about 400 cheese factories that use buffalo milk in the areas of Naples, Caserta and Avellino -- three cities in the Campania region, a main producer where the contamination has been detected.
PHOTO: EPA
Sales of milk or any other products from these facilities will be suspended pending results of the testing, the ministry said in a statement. The results will be given to EU health officials by the middle of next month.
An additional 200 cheese factories in other cities in the region will be checked at a later stage, the ministry said. These results are expected by April 25.
Italy said last week that it had detected moderately higher levels of dioxin than allowed under EU rules in 25 mozzarella-makers, and that it was conducting further tests.
Dioxin is a chemical that is linked to cancer, birth defects and organ failure and can be dangerous even in small amounts.
Italy has assured consumers that all products in supermarkets are safe, and EU health officials backed off threats to impose a Europe-wide ban on mozzarella from Campania.
But China and Singapore became the latest countries to announce restrictions on their imports of the soft white cheese. Farmers group Coldiretti estimated it would take at least a month to restore sales levels for buffalo mozzarella.
It said it was necessary to restore consumer confidence after the scare, which has been affecting domestic and international markets.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS