Italy seals off 83 farms over mozzarella scare

By Silvia Aloisi

ROME (Reuters) - Italy has sealed off 83 dairy farms after finding nearly one in five buffalo mozzarella producers were making cheese with above permitted levels of cancer-causing dioxin, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Seeking to avert a major health scare over one of Italy's best known culinary products after Japan and South Korea blocked imports, the ministry said special checks were being made to guarantee the safety of the cheese.

Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said international alarm was "totally exaggerated and unjustified."

A health ministry statement said checks had revealed levels of dioxin "moderately higher than the limit allowed by European Union regulations" in the mozzarella and milk at 25 out of 130 cheese factories -- a higher incidence than previously reported.

It said that as a result all the 83 dairy farms supplying the producers affected had been sealed off while tests were under way to establish where the contaminated milk came from.

"The measures adopted are intended to guarantee the safety of current production which continues to be subject to additional and extraordinary checks," said the statement, issued after a meeting involving several ministries.

TOXIC CHEMICAL

The sealed-off farms are in the southern Campania region around Naples where officials believe a garbage crisis earlier this year is linked to the higher dioxin levels.