PrintBuffalo Mozzarella Dioxin Scare Widens
As you may or may not know, there's a lot of hoo-hah going on about garbage in and around Naples, Italy. The city's dumps were declared full and shut down late last year, and trash was allowed to pile up in the streets, spurring illegal dumping on the outskirts of town. What's this have to do with food, and more specifically, pizza? Well, it's outside of Naples where that prized pizza ingredient, buffalo mozzarella, is made. And now, dioxin, possibly from toxic trash, has been found in some shipments of the cheese. This new story picks up where an earlier one left off, detailing the Italians' efforts to fight the scare, and it notes that South Korea has now banned imports of the cheese. (Japan has followed suit as well.) Even some Italian pizzerias are starting to switch to cow's milk mozzarella (buffalo mozzarella is, of course, made from the milk of the water buffalo).
As a U.S.-based pizza fiend, I'm not sure what to make of this situation. First, there are very few pizzerias here using buffalo mozzarella, even though the cheese has become somewhat of a trend on pizzas and in other dishes as of the last couple of years. Second, the cheese loses much of its freshness and appeal after 12 to 24 hours, so unless the places you're eating at in the U.S. are getting continuous air-shipped runs of mozzarella di bufala, you're probably not eating it at its peak, anyway.
And when it's at its peak? Here's how Serious Eats's cheese correspondent describes the difference between it and regular mozz:
There's really no comparison in my mind between mozzarella made from water buffalo milk and that made from cow's milk. The former is supple, sweet, and intensely creamy, while the latter can often be more elastic and tangy. Mozzarella di bufala also makes for the best pizza, melting into a luscious puddle that is the ultimate foil for a perfectly crispy crust.
There is an alternative, though. As Jamie reported back in November, Woodstock Water Buffalo in Vermont is now making U.S.-produced buffalo mozzarella. Seems like Italy's loss can be Vermont's gain.
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1 Comment:
Although I don't do cheese, it's kind of scary to think about the state of some imported products or even products in the United States, for that matter.
vegoftheweek at 11:07AM on 03/26/08